\  -a 


' 


k 


A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN, 


UP,   AND   DOWN,   AND   AROUND 
THE   WOELD. 


[WRITTEN  IN  LETTERS  TO  THE  N.  T.  EVENING  EXPRESS.] 


NEW  YORK: 
D.    APPLETON    &    COMPANY, 

549   &   551    BROADWAY. 
1872. 


EKTERED,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1872,  by 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO., 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


TO  THE   PUBLIC. 


WHEN  I  left  home,  late  in  May,  1871,  after  an 
extraordinary  session  of  Congress,  it  was  for  the  sake 
of  health,  to  free  body  and  mind  from  work  and  ex- 
citement of  all  sorts,  such  as  I  had  broken  down 
under,  in  the  hot,  unhealthy  air,  and  unnatural  light 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  and  its  Committee 
rooms.  Then,  it  never  entered  my  head  "  to  scribble  " 
(for  that  is  the  only  proper  word)  the  notes  which 
are  here  embodied  in  a  book,  not  altogether  with  my 
approbation,  though  of  course,  with  my  consent.  A 
life-long  habit  of  work  compelled  me  to  work  (I 
could  not  help  it),  and  hence,  in  disobedience  of  the 
orders  of  my  physician,  I  took  to  scribbling,  always 
in  pencil,  these  notes  or  letters,  which  others  would 
have  kept  in  their  trunks,  but  which  I  sent  home, 
rude  and  rough,  "and  good  enough  for  a  newspa- 
per," perhaps,  which  lives  but  a  day,  but  not  good 
enough  for  a  book,  especially  for  a  book  of  travels. 


iv  TO  THE  PUBLIC. 

All  of  them  save  one  we,re  in  pencil  on  Japanese 
mulberry-paper,  often  pencilled  on  my  hat,  some- 
times, on  my  knees,  and  oftener  yet  on  decks,  or,  in 
the  cabins  of  steamers,  roughly  rolling  and  jerking, 
and  then  quickly  mailed  without  being  read — from 
Yokohama  and  Yedo,  in  Japan,  to  Pekin  and  Can- 
ton, in  China,  or,  from  Sumatra  or  Ceylon,  or,  from 
India  to  Madras  in  the  south,  to  Calcutta  and  Al- 
lahabad in  the  north,  and  Bombay  in  the  west. 
These  notes,  thus  scribbled  and  thus  mailed,  have 
no  literary  merit,  of  course — are  not  intended  to 
have  any,  and  if  they  are  good  for  any  thing,  it  is 
because  they  were  pencilled  and  mailed  "on  the 
spot "  fresh  and  photographic,  thereby.  To  revise 
them  now,  I  have  neither  time  nor  inclination,  not 
even  time  carefully  to  read  them,  until  I  see  them 
in  book-proof,  where,  when  irrevocable,  I  cannot, 
if  dissatisfied,  remould  them,  and  thus  extract  for 
the  sake  of  style  whatever  life  or  vitality  there  may 
be  in  the  notes. 

Japan,  since  July,  when  I  was  there,  has  "  pro- 
gressed" so  rapidly,  that,  the  then,  great,  mighty,  sa- 
cred, and  invisible  Mikado  has  become  as  visible  as 
any  European  monarch ;  and  the  one-  or  two-sworded 
retainers  of  the  Daimios  are  putting  off  their  swords 
as  well  as  their  costumes  (pity  for  that),  and  becoming 
American-  and  European-ized  so  rapidly,  that,  in  some 
respects,  my  notes,  not  a  year  old  now,  will  soon  be- 


TO  THE  PUBLIC.  v 

come  almost  as  antiquated  as  Sir  Richard  Alcock's 
book,  published  not  ten  years  since,  the  very  reading 
of  which  half  affrighted  me,  when  first  thinking  of 
entering  Japan. 

China,  unchanged  and  unchangeable  from  the 
days  of  Marco  Polo,  will  probably  remain  thus,  until 
Americans  or  Englishmen  tempt  the  Mandarins,  by 
fat  contracts,  to  build  railroads  and  telegraphs,  and 
thus  to  defy  the  "  Fung-Shuey." 

The  American  tourists,  who  have  long  been  run- 
ning over  Europe  and  parts  of  Africa,  will  find  in 
these  notes,  if  not  a  guide-book,  the  outlines  for  one, 
and  they  will  see,  that  they  can  now  run  over  Japan, 
China,  and  India,  as  well  as  Egypt  and  parts  of  Italy, 
in  less  than,  a  year. 

To  tempt  my  countrymen  of  the  new  "World,  with 
their  wives  and  daughters,  even  to  visit  this  very  old 
world  of  the  East,  and  thus  to  invite  them  to  new 
fields  of  instruction  and  reflection,  I  have,  not  with- 
out reluctance,  consented  to  this  unprepared  publica- 
tion. 

J.  B. 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  April  12,  1872. 


CONTENTS. 


LETTER  L 

ON,  TO,  AND  OVER  THE  PACIFIC. 

The  Start  from  New  York  to  go  round  the  "World. — Thinking  out  loud  on  Paper. — 
No  fine  "Writing-,  Scribbling  only. — Car  Life  on  the  Prairies  and  Eocky  Mountains, 
but  no  Eocky  Mountains. — The  Way  the  Engineer  dodges  them. — The  Holy  Land 
of  Monnondom, 1 

LETTER  II. 

ON,  TO,  AND  OYER  THE  PACIFIC. 

The  Mormon  Holy  Land. — Geographically  like  the  Holy  Land  over  the  Sea. — How 
Irrigation  has  made  the  Desert  a  Garden. — The  Apostles  and  Elders  of  Mormon- 
dom.— The  Holy  Temple. — Briglam  Toung  in  the  Temple. — The  Women  and 
the  Fashions  in  Salt  Lake  City. — Beelzebub  stirring  up  .Rebellion. — The  Grass- 
hoppers and  the  Gulls, 10 

LETTER  III. 
ON  AND  FROM  THE  PACIFIC. 

Around  the  World  only  a  "Trip." — Snow  on  the  Mountains  and  Alkali  Plains. — Forty 
Miles  of  Snow-sheds. — Sudden  Descent  from  Ice  and  Snow  to  Apricots  and  Straw- 
berries.— Sacramento. — New  Railroad  and  Steamboat  Routes,  ...  18 

LETTER  IV. 

ON    THE    PACIFIC. 

From  the  Golden  Gate  to  Yokohama. — The  "Japan,"  and  the  motley  Crowd  on 
board. — Is,  or  is  not,  the  Pacific  Ocean  a  Humbug? — The  Amusements  on  board. 
— The  Police  of  the  Ship. — Spoke  a  Boston  Ship. — Meeting  a  Steamer  in  Mid- 
ocean,  exchanging  Mails,  etc., 24 

LETTER  V. 

ON    THE    PACIFIC. 

Life  and  Thoughts  on  Ship-board.— The  Day  Lost  in  Rounding  the  World. — 
"Down  East"  is  out  West. — A  Puzzled  Traveller. — Summer  Life  on  this  Ocean. 
— The  Second  Exchange  of  Letters — The  Sixteenth  Amendment — Curious 
Congregation  of  Passengers,  .  .  81 


CONTENTS. 


LETTER  VI. 

FIRST  IlfPRJESSIONS  IN  JAPAN. 

Arrival  in  Japan.— First  Impressions  on  the  Coast. — The  Fishermen  in  "Georgia 
Costume." — Everything  New,  Everything  Odd. — Bamboo  Baskets  for  Hats. — 
Straw  Overcoats. — Landing  on  the  Hatoba. — The  Cues  of  the  Japanese. — The 
Brawny  Coolies. — Travelling  Bestaurants. — Strange  Street  Spectacles. — The  Tat- 
tooed Men.— The  Horse  Boy  (Betto).— Hair  Dressing.— Shocking  Black  Teeth 
of  the  Married  Women, 40 

LETTER  VH. 

TOE  CITY  OF  TSDO. 

The  First  Day  in  Tedo.— The  Ride  on  the  "  Tocaido."— Strange  Sights  there.— The 
Pretty  Tea  Girls.— The  Tiny  Tea  Cups.— Rooms  with  Paper  Partitions.— The 
Beggars,— The  Gin-rick-a  Sha.— Ride  in  State  along  the  "Tocaido."— Hogs  in 
Baskets. — "So  Tycoon,  only  a  "  Mikado." — How  we  Stare  and  how  they  Stare  at 
us. — Great  Fire  in  Tedo, 62 

LETTER  VIII. 
LIFE  AND  BIQBT8  IN  TEDO. 

Sintoo  and  Buddhist  Temples.— The  Priests.— The  Sacred  Cream-Colored  Horses.— 
Theatres  in  the  Temples. — The  Opera  in  Tedo. — Funny  Ride  thereto  in  Gin- 
rick-a  Shas, .  W 

LETTER  ft. 
UfS  AND  8IGBT8  IN  TEDO. 

Eyes  only  Useful  Here. — Tongue  and  Ears  Useless. — Shopping  in  Tedo.— Hotels  in 
Japan. — Grand  Hotel  in  Tedo. — Breakfast  with  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs 
at  Hamagoten. — Dinner  at  a  Beautiful  Country-Seat. — Discussions,  Political  and 
Theological. — "Why  the  Japanese  don't  like  Christians. — The  Schools  of  Japan. — 
Reading,  Writing,  and  Arithmetic  almost  Universal, 75 

LETTER  X. 

TRAVELLER'S  LIFE  IN  THE  INTERIOR. 

The  Great  God  of  Kamakura. — "Statue  of  Dai-bootz." — Life  to  Japanese  Tea-Houses. 
— Ride  in  a  Cango  Bamboo  Basket. — The  Temples  around  Kamakura. — Beautiful 
Scenery. — Fields  cultivated  like  Gardens. — The  Life  and  Rank  of  Japanese 
Farmers. — Visit  to  the  Cave  of  Inosima. — Fish  Life  and  Fish  Dinners. — The 
"Mikado"  and  the  "Tocaido." — Politeness  and  Amiability  of  the  Japanese 
Farmers, 87 

LETTER  XI. 

RETURN  TO   YEDO. 

In  Tedo  a  Second  Time.  —  Now  under  a  British  Escort. — The  English  Dragoons 
and  Japanese  Takonins. — The  Britibh  Student  Interpreters. — Only  a  Hundred 
Caucasians  among  a  Million  of  Japs. — Paper  Windows. — Uneasy  Sleeping. — 
Two-Swordc<l  Loafers. — A  Thousand  British  Troops  in  Tokohama.— -Cheap 
Shopping  in  Tedo.— Fashionable  Riding, 98 


CONTENTS.  jx 

LETTER  XII. 

THINGS    IN    JAPAN. 

Women  among  the  Japanese. — Their  Position  and  Condition. — Promiscuous  Bath- 
ing-houses.— The  Theatre. — Ticketing  Straw  Shoes  therein. — Jap  Stump 
Orators.— Bamboo  in  Japan. — Japanese  Art. — Shopping  in  "  Curio  "  Street. — 
Can  spend  any  Amount  of  Money. — The  Steel  of  Japan. — The  Government  of 
Japan  a  Feudality. — Railroads,  Telegraph,  and  Mint  in  Japan,  .  .  104' 

LETTER  Xin.  • 

ON  THE  JAPAN  SEAS. 

Adieu  to  Yokohama. — The  Foreigners  and  their  Life  there. — The  AH  Sorts  of  Clothes 

'  of  the  East. — The  Japanese  Passengers  on  board  the  Costa  Rica. — A  Japanese 

Prince  and  his  Retinue  on  board. — A  Typhoon  dodged. — Frightful  Loss  of  Life  and 

Property. —  An   Earthquake  felt. —  Curiosity  satisfied. —  Motley  Cargo  of  the 

Costa  Rica.— Butcher's  Meat  called  Fowl, 112 

LETTER  XIV. 

ON  THE  INLAND  SEA   OF  JAPAN. 

The  Beautiful  Inland  Sea  of  Japan. — Luxurious  Travelling. — Prince  Hizen. — Vampire 
Cat — Bay  of  Nagasaki. — The  Oldest  European  Settlement. — The  Roman  Cath- 
olic Priests. — Pappenburg  Island. — Thousands  of  Christians  thrown  from  the 
Precipice. — The  Faith  of  Roman  Catholic  Missionaries. — Street  Scenes  in 
Nagasaki.— Needle  Making.— Porcelain  Painting.— Begging  Buddhist  Priest.— 
Street  Actors. — Japanese  Confectionery. — Japanese  Woman's  Toilet-Box. — Re- 
ceipt for  Blacking  the  Teeth. — Final  Leave  of  Japan, 120 

LETTER  XV. 

ON,  AND   OVER  TO  CHINA. 

On  the  Yellow  Sea,  bound  to  Shanghai— The  Great  Yang-tze  and  its  Yellow  Water. 
— Up  the  Whang-poo. — Reflections  on  entering  the  Great  Gates  of  China. — 
Thermometer  in  Shanghai.— Hot,  Hotter,  Hottest.— Air  wanted,  a  Puff  or  a 
Typhoon. — Things  In  and  About  Shanghai. — The  Summer  Costume. — Innumer- 
able Mounds  or  Graves  in  the  Cotton-Fields. — American  Flag  in  the  Yang-tze. 

We  are  taking  the  Coasting  Trade  of  China,  etc., 129 

LETTER  XVI. 

THE  HEALTH  OF  CHINA. 

Where's  Chefoo?— A  Watering-Place  in  China.— Amusements  There.— The  Amer- 
ican and  Other  Fleets.— The  Noisy  Salutations  of  the  Fleets.— Church  Service 
on  the  Colorado.— The  Corean  Expedition.— The  Race  of  the  Rival  American 
Barges. — Rain  here. — Breakfast  by  the  Russian  Admiral. — The  English  (Uni- 
versal) Language. — Entertainments  given  us  by  the  Russians.— Affinity  of 
Russians  and  Americans. — Admiral  Rodgers's  State  Breakfast. — Divine  Service 
on  board  the  Russian  Flag-Ship. — A  Busy  Week. — The  Novel  Assemblage  at 
Chefoo  about  to  disperse, 140 


X  CONTENTS. 

LETTER  XVII. 

ON  THE  PEIHO  RIVER, 

Tremendous  Flood  on  the  River  of  Peiho. — Whole  Villages  washed  away. — Tho 
People  drowned  out. — "Widespread  Desolation. — Living  on  the  River  on  a  Yankee 
Steamer. — The  Grand  Canal  broken  loose. — The  Crooked  Peiho  River. — The  Way 
we  wound  up  the  River. — The  Tear-ago  Massacre  of  Europeans  and  Catholics  in 
Tien-tsin. — The  then  Fright  of  all  Missionaries. — Scare  about  going  there. — 
Guns  and  Gunboats  Commercial  and  Christian  Guarantees. — An  Exploration  of 
the  Old  Under-water  Tien-tsin,  in  a  British  Launch. — Innumerable  Junks. — Tho 
Ruins  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Cathedral.— The  Tombs  of  the  slain  Sisters.— Ter- 
rors predicted  for  Tourists  to  Pekin. — Nevertheless,  On,  On  to  Pekin,  .  149 

LETTER  XVIII. 

ON,      TO      PEKIN. 

Arrival  at  Tung-Chow. — Lodged  in  a  Temple. — Ice  in  Abundance  now. — On  to 
Pekin  that  Night— The  Gates  of  Pekin  at  Sunset.— The  Infernal  Road  to  the 
Celestial  City,  in  a  Mule  Cart. — Bump,  Thump. — No  Getting  Out,  no  Living 
In.— The  Sights  on  the  Tung-Chow  and  Pekin  -Road.— The  Wheelbarrow 
Gentry.— Caravans.— First  Sight  of  the  Bactrian  Camel.— The  Great  Walls  of 
the  City  after  Sunset. — What  John  Chinaman  thinks  of  an  American-dressed 
Woman  entering  his  Capital  in  an  Open  Sedan-chair. — Difference  of  Opinion 
as  to  Pekin  and  New  York  Fashions. — Happy  Welcome  in  the  Russian  Lega- 
tion.— A  Cossack  Porter  opens  the  Great  Gates, 1ST 

LETTER  XIX. 

THE  JOURNEY  TO  PEKIN. 

How  he  got  to  Pekin  in  a  Springless  Cart,  over  a  Granite-Paved  Imperial  Road, 
Thirteen  Miles  long  when  first  made,  and  passable,  now  thirty,  or  more,  from 
the  Holes  in  it,  and  the  Crooks  to  dodge  these  Holes. — Bones  all  aching  from 
Pounding,  but  Bone-Pounding  Good  Medicine  at  Times. — The  Fit-Out  for  the 
River  Peiho  Journey  in  Sampans. — Hospitality  of  the  Ticn-tsiners. — Bad  Water. 
— Must  Liquor  or  Tea. — Dead  Chinamen  by  millions,  and  Graves  everywhere 
bad  for  Wells.— Catalogue  of  a  Peiho  Boat  Outfit— The  Terrors  of  the  Route  all 
exaggerated. — The  High  Water  a  Help. — Cut  across  Lots. — The  Supplies  en 
route. — Beggars. — A  not  Disagreeable  Journey. — All  Sleeping  Unprotected. — 
No  Real  Perils. — Coolie  Comforts. — Sights  on  the  River. — British  Manufactures. 
— The  Cock  keeps  Time  for  the  Coolie  in  the  Morning. — Life  in  a  Junk. — Toi- 
lettes there. — Tho  Countless  Babies  here,  .......  164 

LETTER  XX. 

F  R  0  M      PEKIN. 

The  Guide-Books  of  Pokin. — The  "Ji-hia-kieu-wen-kau"  and  the  "  Chen-yuen-chi- 
lio." — Three  Cities  within  Pekin,  the  Manchu  or  Tartar,  Chinese,  and  Imperial. — 
Shopping  in  Pekin. — Great  Fur  Market. — Mongolia,  Manchuria,  Corea,  and  Sibe- 
ria Sables,  Ermine,  etc.,  etc. — Precious  Stones. — Jade. —  Greek  Chapel  on  the 
Grounds  of  the  Russian  Legation. — Life  among  Chinese  Russians. —  Catholic 
and  Protestant  Missionaries  in  Pekin. — Visit  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Cathedral. — 
French  Priests  and  Sisters  of  Charity. — School  for  Chinese  Children. — Money 
and  tho  Missionaries. —  Conflicts  between  them.  —  Foreign  and  Anti-Foreign 
Party  in  China. — Chinese  Efforts  to  create  Projudico  against  Christians,  .  173 


CONTENTS.  Xi 

LETTEE  XXI. 
FROM    PE KI N. 

Paradise  in-doors,  Tartarus  out — Pekin  Holes,  Mud,  Dust,  Dirt. — No  Noses  in  Pe- 
kin. — Sights  and  Smells.— Wealthy  Chinese. — Sumptuary  Laws  in  China. — Se- 
dan-chairs.— Marriages  and  Funerals. — Women  6f  no  Account. — Polygamy. — 
Women's  Fashions  in  Pekin. — Dr.  Williams,  the  Secretary,  Bibliophilist,  and 
Encyclopaedist.  —  The  Chinese  retrograding.  —  Confucianism  losing  its  In- 
fluence.— Christianity. — Roman  Catholics,  when  starting  here,  teaching  the  Ma- 
terial as  well  as  the  Spiritual— Conflict  of  Christ  and  Confucius.— The  Chinese 
Classics, 182 

LETTEE  XXII. 

TOE  TEMPLES  IN  PEKIN. 

The  Temples  in  China. — Confucius  and  the  Lama.— The  Lessons  of  Confucius. — His 
Influence  in  the  Government  of  the  Chinese. — The  Sages  of  China. — Tablets  to 
the  Disciples  of  Confucius. — The  Competitive  Students. — The  Despotism  and 
Democracy  of  China. — The  Diagrams. — The  Yang  and  the  Yin. — Intelligence  of 
the  Chinese. — The  Lama  Buddhist  Temple. — Mongolian  Priests. —  Contrast  of 
the  Lama  and  Confucius  Temples. — A  Chinese  Mandarin's  House. — Yang  was 
his  Name. — Sensation  in  the  Streets. — The  Interior  of  the  Mandarin's  House. — 
The  Wife  and  Handmaids. — Description  of  the  Wife's  Dress. — Refreshments. — 
Walks  on  the  Eoof  of  the  House,  ..-•;'««*•*  .  ...  .  .  190 

LETTEE  XXIII. 

TUB  GOVERNMENT  OF  CHINA. 

The  Great  Wall  of  China.— The  Overland  Eoute  to  St  Petersburg.— Turned  back  by  a 
Mohammedan  Entente. — Now  too  late  or  too  early  in  the  Season. — Can  tele- 
graph from  here  to  New  York  in  twelve  or  sixteen  Days. — The  Government  of 
China. — Confucius  a  sort  of  Ben  Franklin  or  Thomas  Jefferson. — No  Hereditary 
Aristocracy. — Public  Sentiment  governs  here  as  in  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States. — Bailroads  and  Telegraphs  resisted  by  Superstitions,  to  be 
overcome. — China  making  Great  Preparations  for  War.— Casting  Cannon,  etc. — 
China  retrograding. — Corruption  the  Cause. — Mandarin  Titles  bought  and 
sold. — The  Literati  Mandarins  now  dishonest.  —  The  Boy  Emperor,  fifteen 
Years  of  Age. — His  Future  not  promising. — The  Dowager  hunting  a  Wife  for 
him.— The  Pekin  Gasette, 199 

LETTEE  XXIV. 

FROM  THE  GREAT  WALL  OF  COJNA. 

On  Top  of  the  Great  Wall  of  China. — Droves  of  Sheep,  Hogs,  Ponies,  Donkeys. — 
Mongolians  and  Manchus. — Speech-making  on  Top  of  the  Great  Wall. — Speech 
of  J.  B.  to  the  Great  Wall.—  Tartars,  a  Species  of  Yankees,  leaping  over  all 
Walls.— Outfit  for  the  Trip  from  Pekin  to  the  Great  Wall.— Brick  Tea.— Sheep's- 
tail  Soup. — Eggs  in  Abundance. — Mule  Litters. — Description  of  the  Craft. — Tho 
Muleteers. — Mingling  Mire,  Mud,  and  Dust. — Sounding  for  the  Bottom  of  the 
Bogs. — Dodging  into  Farms  and  Gardens. — Eoads  in  China  are  Ditches. — The 
Pass  of  Nan-Kow. —  First  Night's  Experience  in  a  Mongolian  Inn. — A  Brick 
Oven  to  sleep  on. — Journey  to  the  Wall  over  a  Bough  and  Terrible  Eoad. — A 
Series  of  Walls. — A  Lunch  amid  Ruins  of  tho  Wall.— The  Comfort  of  a  Cup  of 
Cold  Water,  .  i!OS 


Xij  CONTENTS. 

LETTER  XXV, 
RETURN    TO    PEKIN. 

The  Ming  Tombs.— The  Grand  Approach  to  them.— AH  going  to  ruin.— The  Summer 
Palace  of  the  Emperors. — "  Yueng-Ming-Yuen-Ching,"  the  man-of-all-work. — 
Letters  of  Credit  no  Service  in  Pekin.— No  Coin  or  Currency  in  China.— Sycee.— 
The  North  of  China. — The  Emperor  gives  Audience  at  5  A.  M. — The  Marble  Bridge 
and  the  Lotus.— The  Temple  of  Heaven.— The  Temple  of  Earth.— The  Sacrifices 
in  these  Temples  by  the  Emperor, 220 

LETTEB  XXVI. 

RETURNING  SOUTHWARD. 

A  Traveller  retracing  his  Steps. — Tung  Chow,  on  the  Peilio  River. — The  Wheel- 
barrow Traffic. — Death  to  the  Coolies. —  Processions  en  route. — Of  Funerals 
and  Weddings.— A  Good  Story  told  of  Gov.  Seward.— Mistaking  a  Funeral  Pro- 
cession for  an  Ovation  to  Himself. — Expense  of  Travelling  as  a  Grandee.— A  Tem- 
ple for  a  Hotel — Running  the  Gauntlet  of  the  Junks  to  Tien-tsin. — The  Noisy 
Monosyllables  of  the  Chinese. — Huge  Pyramids  of  Salt — Home,  Sweet  Home. — 
The  Szechuen. — Under  a  Yankee  Captain  from  Maine. —  The  Grapes  of  the 
Peiho.— The  EoDlng  Screw  Steamers  of  the  Yellow  Sea. — Rivalry  of  British  and 
American  Steamers. — Chinese  Customs  collected  by  Foreigners. — The  American 
Flag  driven  off. — Manufactures  driven  oft, 286 

LETTER  XXVII. 
THINGS    IN    SHANGHAI. 

Shanghai. — Its  Enterprises  and  Surroundings.— The  Hot  Sun  of  Shanghai — Turning 
White  Men  Yellow. — The  City  Government  of  Shanghai. — Eastern  Hours  for 
Brpakfast  and  Dinner. — The  Great  Commerce  of  Shanghai. — Much  of  it  passing 
into  Chinese  Hands. — Tea  Trade. — Tea-Tasters. — Telegraphs  to,  and  from  Shang- 
hai.— Tea  Steamers  up  the  Yang-tze. — Foreign  Schemes  to  dodge  the  Fung 
Shuey.— Hostility  to  Electricity.— The  Telegraphs  from  Shanghai  via  Nagasaki 
and  Vladivastock,  in  Russia, 247 

LETTER  XXVm. 

FROX  TBS  ENGLISH  COLONY  OF  HONG  SONG. 

How  Screw-Steamers  roll — Cabins,  Hot,  Hotter,  Hottest — Chow  Chow  excellent. — 
Sleep  in  a  Stew  Prison. — The  Great  English  (P.  &  O.)  and  French  Lines  of  Steam- 
ers in  the  East — Hong  Kong. — Typhoons  here. — The  City  the  Refuge  of  the 
Refuse  Chinese. — Curious  Intermixture  of  Population. — The  Coolie  Emigration 
here.— The  Dialects  of  China.— Pidgen  English.— Chinese  Kitchens  and  Cooks, 
etc.,  etc.,  .- 256 

LETTER  XXTX. 
THINGS    IN    CANTON. 

What  Canton  is. — Its  People,  Streets,  Sewers,  etc.,  etc. — The  Temples  of  Canton. — 
Sacred  Hogs,  Confucius  and  the  Stalls. — Caging  Students  ambitious  to  be  Man- 
darins.— Do  Chinamen  eat  Cats,  Dogs,  and  Rate  f — The  Manufactories  of  Can- 


CONTENTS.  Xlii 

ton. — The  Silk  Gauzes. — An  Improvised  Breakfast  on  a  Pagoda. — No  Beasts  of 
Burthen  In  the  City.— All  Coolie  Work.— A  Sabbath  In  Canton.— Boat  Life 
there.— Ducks  and  their  Owners.— Gates  and  Police.— No  Going  Out  Nights.— 
No  Courting.— No  Clubs, 265 

LETTER  XXX. 
THOUGHTS  ON  THE  CHINA  SEAS. 

The  Imitative  Powers  of  the  Chinese. — Their  Love  of  Money. — Population  of  China 
over-estimated. — Pisciculture  in  Canton. — Chinese  Dialects. — War  Talk.  —Super- 
stitions of  the  Ignorant.— Singapore.— The  Malay  Divers.— Foreign  Commerce. 
—The  Census.— The  Jungle.— Agriculture,  etc.,  etc.,  ....  276 

LETTER  XXXI. 

FROM  CEYLON  AND  THE  BAY  OF  BENGAL. 

England,  Continuous  England. — The  Steamer  Congregation  in  Ceylon. — A  Grand  Ori- 
ental Hotel. — Buddhism  born  here. — Sapphires,  Rubies,  and  Pearls. — The  Cinga- 
lese great  Cheats. — A  Monkey  Story. — Curious  Boats  and  Boatmen  in  Galle. — 
Men  here  mistaken  for  Women,  and  vice  versa. — Madras,  and  Things  there. — 
The  Latin  Races  here  crowded  off  by  the  Anglo-Saxon.— Englishmen  here  patron- 
ize the  Shastra  and  the  Veda,  as  well  as  the  Bible. — Their  Race  kept  distinct. — A 
Handful  of  Englishmen  governing  a  World. — Juggling  in  Madras. — Golcondaand 
Juggernaut. — Cyclones  and  the  Church  at  Sea. — Hymns,  etc.  .  .  .  283 

LETTER  XXXII. 
BRITISH    INDIA. 

England  Forever  and  Ever— 200,000,000  British  Subjects— Standing  Army  of  820,000 
Soldiers. — Vast  Imports  and  Exports. — East  Indians. — Monkeys  or  Men. — Trade 
and  Commerce  of  India. — The  Holy  Ganges. — English  Water- Works  on  it. — 
Calcutta  no  longer  the  "  Black  Hole  " — Hot,  not  Unhealthy. — The  Punkah  Fan 
the  Great  Institution  of  India. — The  Punkah  Everywhere — Tudor  and  His  Ice 
the  Great  Things  of  the  East. — The  Hancocks,  the  Websters,  Nothing. — The 
Tudor  Every  Thing. — Wenham  Something. — Boston  Nothing. — The  Hoogley 
River  and  the  Cyclones. — Enchanting  Approach  to  Calcutta.— The  King  of 
Oude. — A  Seventeen  Days'  Hindoo  Holiday  in  Calcutta. — Polygamy  and  Poly- 
andry.— Hindooism,  Buddhism,  Brahminism  and  Mohammedanism. — The  820,- 
000  Standing  Army  Government  of  India  not  a  Bad  One, ....  292 

LETTER  XXXIII. 

THINGS  AND  THOUGHTS  IN  CALCUTTA. 

The  Impudent  Crows  of  Calcutta. — How  they  chatter. — A  Drove  of  Elephants  em- 
barking for  War. — The  "  Central  Park  "  and  "  Hyde  Park  "  of  Calcutta. — Funny 
Liveries. — The  Trade  of  the  Metropolis  of  India. — Exports,  Cutch,  Coir,  Jute, 
Indigo,  and  so  on. — The  Cocoa-nut  Tree. — American  Trade. — Assam  Tea. — The 
Opium  Trade,  a  Government  Monopoly. — The  Flocks  of  Servants  in  Calcutta. — 
No  Women  Servants. — All  Men. — Men  as  Washerwomen. — The  Woman  invisi- 
ble.—English  Women  going  to  India.— The  Chit  and  the  Coolie.—The  Ladies' 
Chit— Charming  Social  Life  in  Calcutta, .803 


XIV 


CONTENTS. 


LETTER  XXXTV. 

THS    RUN  ACROSS    INDIA. 

Things  in  India.— Kail  from  Calcutta  to  Bombay.— The  Raging  Sun  of  India.— The 
Parsees  of  Bombay. — Fire  Worshippers.— Sunday  Evening's  "Work  in  Cal- 
cutta.— India  Bailroad  Cars. — How  they  are  cooled,  and  how  they  are  convert- 
ing the  Pagans. — The  Telegraphs  of  India. — Journalism  in  India. —  Coal  in 
India. — The  "Way  Coolies  work. — Indian  Muslins  and  Cashmere  Shawls. — The 
Plains  of  the  Ganges. — The  Pagan  Temples  of  India. — Hindoos  more  intelligent 
than  Mohammedans. — Allahabad. — Jubbalpore. — The  Passage  of  the  Ghauts. — 
Entrance  into  Bombay, 814 

LETTER  XXXV. 

SIGHTS  IN  AND  ABOUT  BOMBAY. 

Bombay.— What  it  is  as  a  City.— Calcutta  the  Court;  Bombay  the  Mart.— New  In- 
fluences of  the  Suez  Canal. — The  Treasures  of  India  here. — Cashmere  Shawls. — 
The  Bombay  Fashionables  on  a  Drive. — The  Parsees. — The  Way  they  don't  bury 
their  Dead. — India  Gods. — Where  manufactured. — The  Te'mples  of  India. — The 
Wonderful  "Elephanta." — Dining  Out  in  the  East. — The  Koute  to  Persia  and 
Aden. — The  Census  and  Exports  of  Bombay. — Extent  of  Railroads  in  India. — 
Sound  Banks  and  a  good  Currency, 829 

LETTER  XXXVI. 

ON  THE  ARABIAN  AND  BED  SEAS. 

Lascars,  Africans,  Chinese,  Portuguese,  and  Englishmen,  managing  a  Steamer. — 
The  Infernal  Sun  of  India. — The  Reservoir  of  Surplus  Englishmen. — How  India 
exhausts  European  Life. — The  British  Soldier's  Luxurious  Life  in  Peace. — The 
Native  Troops  of  India. — The  Grip  of  England  upon  India. — Effect  of  Christian- 
ity upon  Hipdoos  and  Mohammedans. — The  Hindoo  Pantheon  and  333,000,000 
Gods. — The  Brahmin  Castes. — Bankers  below  Barbers. — Arabs  and  their  Ocean 
Craft — Railroad  from  London  to  Bombay.— Time,  Five  Days. — England  encore, 
toujours,  forever  and  ever. — The  Red-Hot  Red  Sea. — This  Unfinished  Part  of 
the  Earth. — Aden  the  Fag  End  of  Creation. —  The  Divers  of  Aden. —  Strings 
of  Camels  Led  by  their  Noses. — The  Proper  Time  to  Travel  in  the  East. — Fares 
and  Distances,  .  V  .  : 840 

LETTER  XXXVII. 

SUDDEN  FLIGHT  FROX  ASIA  AND  AFRICA  INTO  EUROPE. 

Among  the  Alps. — The  Isthmus  of  Suez. — Suez  Canal. — Will  it  pay  ? — Egypt  and 
Alexandria. — Confederate  Officers  in  the  Pasha's  Army. — Horrid  (English)  Rail- 
road Cars. — Boreas  and  the  Egyptian  Sands.— Across  the  Mediterranean  to 
Brindisi.— Things  in  Brindisi  and  Turin.— How  cold  it  is.— Mt.  Cenis  and  the 
Great  Tunnel. — Glorious  Scenery, 853 

LETTER  XXXVIII. 

THINGS  IN  PARIS  AND   LONDON. 

Things  in  Paris  and  in  London.— Shopping  in  both  Cities.— Paris  sad  just  now.— 
An  American  almost  Home  in  England. — Liverpool. — Rough  Rocking  on  the 
Atlantic. — Put  into  Newfoundland  for  Coal. — St.  John's. — Fishermen  there. — 
Home  again,  Sweet  Homo,  etc., 801 

HOME  rfcoM  A  FOREIGN  SHORE. •;       .       .    -  .       .    371 


A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  KUN, 

UP,  AND  DOWN,  AND  AEOUND  THE  WORLD. 


LETTEE  I. 

OJf,   TO,  AND  OVER  THE  PACIFIC. 

The  Start  from  New  York  to  go  round  the  World. — Thinking  out  loud  on  Paper. — 
No  fine  Writing1,  Scribbling  only. — Car  Life  on  the  Prairies  and  Kooky  Mountains, 
but  no  Eocky  Mountains. — The  Way  the  Engineer  dodges  them. — The  Holy  Land 
of  Mormondom. 

SALT  LAKE  CITY,  May  26,  1871. 

FIVE  days'  start  from  New  York,  only ;  left  there 
Sunday  night,  May  21st  (after  Sunday  was  over), 
here,  in  the  "Holy  City,"  Friday,  7  P.  M.,  trunks 
all  right,  ticketed  from  New  York,  with  but  one 
sight  of  them,  no  trouble,  no  fatigue,  plenty  of 
sleep,  good  enough  living — the  Tabernacle  in  view, 
and  the  Saints  all  about.  The  "  Rail "  could  not  do 
all  this,  not  even  the  "  Pacific "  Rail ;  but  the 
blessed  invention  of  the  sleeping-car  rocks  one  so 
gently  at  night,  and  puts  one  so  gently  to  sleep,  that 
one  is  a  little  fresher,  as  the  morning  sun  peeps 
through  the  windows,  than  if  one  slept  at  home, 
without  the  cradling  and  the  motion. 

I  am  ordered  off  by  a  doctor  for  a  "  trip,"  a  trip 
only,  somewhere,  but  where,  there  are  no  Congresses, 
no  newspapers,  no  telegraphs,  no  rails,  and  I  am  going 


2  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

to  obey,  reserving  the  privilege  only  of  thinking  out 
loud  on  paper  to  you — nay,  permitted  to  do  nothing 
else — and  I  am  going  to  obey  that  doctor,  but  just 
how,  or  just  where,  I  can't  see,  though  I  am  going 
over  the  Pacific  into  Asia  to  see.  I  should  die,  after 
my  busy  life,  with  nothing  to  do ;  but  this — if  your 
readers  will  expect  nothing  else  save  scribbling — pen- 
cil scratching,  no  fine  writing,  nothing  but  a  travel- 
ler's thoughts  out  loud,  will  busy  me,  kill  off  idle 
hours,  and,  perhaps,  amuse  you. 

Well,  when  one  starts  on  a  journey  over,  or 
"around  the  world,"  one  naturally  enough  begins 
to  count  the  first  few  miles  in  the  twenty-four  or 
twenty-five  thousand  (more  or  less,  that  depending 
upon  deviations  to  come).  The  start  from  New  York 
to  Newark  was  the  first  count,  seven  great  miles, 
which  left  some  twenty-four  thousand  nine  hundred 
and  ninety-three  to  come.  This  species  of  arithme- 
tic, however,  soon  tires  one,  and  the  blessed  sleeping- 
car  comes  to  relieve.  I  waked  up  among  the  moun- 
tains of  Pennsylvania,  in  the  winding  gorges  of  the 
Alleghanies,  near  Altoona,  where  the  Chinese  gongs 
sound  a  terrible  rattle  for  breakfast,  and  where  sce- 
nery, as  beautiful  as  cit  should  see,  gladdens  his  eye, 
warms  his  heart,  and  makes  him  feel  there  is  some- 
thing on  earth — even  if  it  be  Pennsylvania  coal  and 
coal-smoke — now  and  then,  more  cheering  than  miles 
of  New  York  brown-stone  or  brick  and  mortar.  "We 
flew  (a  locomotive  fly)  over  the  crest  of  the  Allegha- 
nies, by  such  pretty  mountain  watering-places  as 


ON,  TO,  AND  OVER  THE  PACIFIC.  3 

Cresson ;  and  at  10.30  A.  M.  we  were  in  that  great 
inland  workshop,  Pittsburg,  which  all  of  us  contrib- 
ute more  or  less  to  build  up  in  the  taxes  we  univers- 
ally pay.  As  a  stream  of  freight  cars  met  us,  labelled 
"  From  Valparaiso  to  Batavia,"  I  could  not  but  think 
at  first  what  a  long  journey  that  train  is  on,  from 
South  America  to  the  East  Indies,  over  sea;  but 
when  I  reflected  what  hard  work  it  is  in  this  new 
country  to  find  new  names  for  its  ever-springing-up 
cities  and  towns,  the  journey  did  not  seem  so  long. 

There  was  a  dear  little  woman  with  us,  and  she 
had  a  dear  little  baby,  and  these  dear  little  things 
were  going  somewhere  West,  to  meet  some  dear  big 
husband,  who  had  rolled  up  dollars  enough  to  roll 
them  out  from  their  Eastern  home,  but  not  dollars 
enough  to  spare  to  tempt  him  to  go  out  and  escort 
them  on.  The  dear  little  woman  must  have  air,  and 
would  have  air,  and,  this  being  her  first  great  jour- 
ney, would  look  out  of  open  windows.  The  con- 
sequence was,  despite  the  ingenious  inventions  of 
the  compartment-car,  its  upper  windows,  its  ventila- 
tors, etc.,  etc.,  the  dear  little  woman  would,  and  did, 
cover  us  all  over  with  dust  and  cinders.  This  led  me 
to  the  reflection,  that  the  car  inventors,  who  are  daily 
inventing  all  sorts  of  new  things  to  cheat  journeying 
out  of  its  hardships,  and  to  make  it  as  pleasant  as 
home,  should  invent  a  special  compartment  cage,  to 
cage  up  dear  little  women,  fresh  and  green  in  this 
journey  of  life,  where  they  would  be  themselves  all 
covered  up  with  dirt  and  cinders,  and  catch  great 


4  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

colds .  for  themselves  and  their  babies,  to  kill  them, 
perhaps,  soon  after  they  reach  their  husbands. 

But  if  I  go  on  thus  "  thinking  out  loud,"  I  shall 
never  get  to  this,  the  Holy  City,  this  Mecca,  this 
Jerusalem.  The  23d  (evening)  we  crossed  the  Missis- 
sippi, at  Davenport  ( Iowa),  where  great  works  and 
great  doings  of  all  kinds  are  going  on.  Think  of  an 
opera-house  there,  and  big  breweries,  and  two  bridges 
here  over  the  stern  Father  of  Waters.  The  24th 
(morning)  we  crossed  the  Missouri,  rising  and  roaring 
now,  and  looking  like  mush.  The  classic  Greeks 
called  such  yellow  rivers  "  golden  "  (vide,  the  golden 
Pactolus) ;  but  "  mush  "  is  the  proper  Yankee  word 
for  this  yellow,  turbid,  wild,  mud-mixed  torrent.  The 
big  piers  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  bridge,  sixty 
or  eighty  feet  under  water,  to  rock  bottom,  are  fast 
going  down,  and  the  same  car  that  takes  us  from  Chi- 
cago over  the  broad  prairies  of  Illinois  and  Iowa,  can 
take  us  over  a  bridge,  on  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  of 
Wyoming  and  Utah. 

We  are  crossing  the  prairies  of  Nebraska,  and 
ascending  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
— in  a  compartment,  with  an  organ  in  the  centre, 
from  which  the  musically  inclined  are  grinding 
out  their  melodies — in  native  "Old  Hundred"  or 
"  Bridgewater  "  notes,  while  a  Frenchman,  an  artist, 
of  course,  bound  on  to  San  Francisco,  rolls  out  his  fol- 
de-rols  in  thunder  squalls,  that  astound  the  Pawnee 
squaws,  and  scare  up  the  prairie  dogs  and  antelopes. 
Everybody  that  has  not  seen  an  Indian,  pants  to  see 


ON,  TO,  AND  OVER  THE  PACIFIC.  5 

one,  and  the  first  Pawnee  that  turns  up  receives 
many  a  mite — more  especially  the  squaw  and  the 
papoose  slung  on  her  back,  from  all  the  romantically 
inclined  young  women.  The  classic  barbarians  here, 
contemptuously  call  the  Indian,  "  Lo,"  from  Pope's 
"  Lo,  the  poor  Indian,  whose  untutored  mind  sees  God 
in  clouds,  and  hears  Him  in  the  wind,"  while  all  the 
Eastern  Popes  think  of  him  only  as  Cooper  has  painted 
him,  and  sympathize  with  him  and  his  sufferings. 
Everybody,  too,  pants  to  see  a  prairie  dog— miserable 
little  squirrel-like  wretches,  that  live  in  towns  ( in 
towns  of  holes),  and  pop  up  as  the  cars  are  coming, 
and  pop  down  as  the  cars  come, — or,  an  antelope  (we 
are  expecting,  in  vain,  though,  to  breakfast  and  dine 
upon  one)  or  deer,  which  we  often  see  scampering  in 
fright  over  the  rocky  hills  and  through  the  sage  brush. 
"We  gather  some  prairie  flowers ;  we  buy  more.  All 
are  very  pretty ;  and  thus  car  life  and  prairie  life  are 
charming  to  such  as  have  not  had  too  much  of  it. 

Car  life  like  ours  is  a  new  life,  existing  only  in 
this  country.  The  sleeping-car  with  beds  and  bed- 
clothes is  known  in  no  other  land,  and  hence  I  will 
tarry  by  the  wayside  to  think  out  loud  about 
it.  There  were  seventeen  ladies  and  twenty-seven 
children  in  the  car  that  preceded  us  yesterday,  "  the 
steward's  "  (that's  the  new  name,  I  think,  for  the 
dark-colored  young  gentleman  that  "  helps "  in  this 
craft,  and  makes  up,  and  makes  down,  the  beds) — 
but  in  this  car  of  ours  we  have  only  seven  little 
ones,  not  with  mothers  to  match,  though,  for  one 


6  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

mother  owns  five  of  the  seven.  The  dark-colored 
young  gentleman,  when  we  order,  drops  down  the 
upper  beds,  and  pulls  out  the  lower  beds,  and  we 
tumble  in  behind  the  curtains,  and  strip  off  our  gear 
as  quickly  as  possible.  Some  go  to  bed  at  8,  and 
others  at  12  p.  M.,  and  thus  the  eight-hour  people  can 
be  regaled  for  hours  by  the  stories,  the  adventures, 
the  secrets,  of  the  twelve-hour  people,  who  have 
four  mortal  hours  to  tell  all  they  know.  Then,  when 
the  train  stops  to  coal,  or  to  water,  we  hear  the 
gentle  outgoing  of  some  near  neighbor's  fairy  breath, 
or  the  deep,  sonorous  snore  of  some  hard  sleeper, 
whom  some  nightmare  is  harassing.  The  hours  of 
rising  are  not  so  irregular  as  the  hours  of  retiring ; 
for  a  sort  of  necessity  compels  everybody  "  to  get  up  " 
at  once,  about  six  or  seven.  Then  come  scenes  no 
mere  scribling  pencil  of  mine  can  exploit,  only  the 
light  rays  of  the  photographer.  From  some  top-bed- 
chambers, hang  out  long  tresses  of  hair ;  from  others, 
projecting  articles  of  dress;  from  others,  the  dan- 
gling, pantalooned  legs  of  men — while  all,  to  do  all 
justice,  laugh  at  the  miseries  and  mysteries  of  the 
toilette,  and  make  the  most  and  the  best  of  the  uni- 
versal huddle.  We  wash,  as  we  best  can ;  and  when 
the  gong  rattles  for  breakfast,  the  most  of  us  rush 
out,  to  give  the  dark-colored  young  master  of  the 
craft  his  opportunity  to  clean  up,  and  clear  off,  the 
ruins  of  the  night.  Some,  however,  nay  many,  who 
cannot  afford  the  dollar  breakfast  (for  that  is  the 
price  here  of  every  meal),  draw  forth  their  lunch- 


ON,   TO,  AND   OVER  THE  PACIFIC.  7 

baskets,  and  eat  in  the  cars,  and  thus  much  disturb 
the  master  in  making  a  day  "  palace "  of  his  night 
sleeping  hall.  Night  after  night,  this  is  the  scene, 
from  Omaha,  on  the  Missouri,  to  Oaklands,  on  the 
Pacific  waters. 

Cheyenne — away  up  the  hills,  some  thousands  of 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  no  matter  how  many, 
but  many  enough  at  times  to  be  very  snowy,  more 
windy,  and  very  cold — is  the  "Wyoming  Territory 
Exchange  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  Near 
here  we  begin  to  see  the  snowy  mountains ;  and  near 
here  we  see,  or  think  we  see,  the  Rocky  Mountains  ; 
but  the  Rocky  Mountains  on  the  line  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  are  grand  humbugs.  "  There  is  not 
any  Rocky  Mountain,"  the  traveller  writes  down  in  his 
note-book.  "  The  geographer  has  been  cheating  us  for 
a  hundred  years."  "  Lewis  and  Clarke,  the  first  Pacific 
explorers,  told  lies."  "  Fremont  wrote  romances  about 
Rocky  Mountains,  Rocky  Mountain  fastnesses,  and 
Rocky  Mountain  peaks."  "  The  United  States  Gov- 
ernment engineers,  in  their  great,  big  Pacific  Railroad 
Government  books,  drew  monstrous  long  yarns,"  etc. ! 
But  there  are  Rocky  Mountains,  real,  live,  big,  boun- 
cing, frightful  Rocky  Mountains ;  but  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad  has  contrived  so  to  get  over,  or  through,  and 
around  them,  that  the  traveller  is  cheated  out  of  his 
eyes  and  seven  senses,  and  there  are  no  Rocky  Moun- 
tains to  him.  We  are  going  up,  up,  up ;  we  all  feel 
and  know  that.  The  vegetation  indicates,  we  are 
going  heavenward.  Sherman,  the  tip-top,  jumping- 


8 


A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 


off  railroad  place,  8,242  feet  above  the  level  of  tlie 
sea,  demonstrates  there  are  some  Rocky  Mountains  ; 
but  we  have  only  seen  snowy  peaks  in  the  distance — 
Pike's  Peak  and  Elk  Mountain — and  thus  "going 
over  the  Rocky  Mountains,"  on  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad,  is  all  a  joke  to  us. 

Cheyenne,  I  was  about  to  say,  when  led  off  on 
this  Rocky  Mountain  Jack-o'-lantern  digression,  is  an 
"  Exchange "  on  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  The 
Denver  (Colorado)  Railroad  comes  in  here,  bringing 
passengers  from  St.  Louis.  The  Western  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  train  meets  the  Eastern  train  here. 
We  all  gaze  about  to  see  whom  we  know.  The  United 
States  Army  rides  in,  from  the  forts  all  round,  with 
its  wives  and  children,  to  see  "  who  is  who,  and  what 
is  what."  Three  trains,  meeting  6,000  feet  in  the  air, 
is  the  great  event  of  the  day.  We  eat,  of  course, 
thirty  minutes  (they  give  us  fifty  here).  We  stop  to 
buy  moss  agate  jewelry.  We  shake  hands  with  every- 
body, from  everywhere,  or  going  everywhere.  There 
is  a  daily  evening  newspaper  here,  and  we  devoured 
the  telegrams,  more  especially  to  see  how  the  mad- 
men were  carrying  on,  in  Paris,  the  night  before.  In 
short,  we  know  just  as  much,  away  up  here  in  the  air, 
of  what  the  world  is  doing,  as  you  know  on  Broad- 
way, New  York.  There  are  'two  competing  lines 
of  telegraph  all  about  us.  We  receive  and  send 
home  messages.  Indeed,  we  are  at  home,  away 
up  here  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  among  the  bears, 
the  wildcats,  and  the  rattlesnakes,  if  any  are  left, 


ON,  TO,  AND  OVER  THE  PACIFIC.  9 

that  have  not  run  away  with  the  buffaloes  and  the 
Indians. 

From  "  Sherman,"  named  after  General  Sherman, 
the  tallest  general  in  the  army,  we  go  clown,  down, 
down.  Two  engines  pulled  us  up,  but  all  the  brakes 
are  put  on  as  we  go  down,  down,  down.  Then  we 
scour  over  the  Laramie  Plains,  reach  Laramie  City, 
the  hope,  the  haven,  the  heaven  of  the  woman's 
righters,  where  sing  the  men — 

"Nice  little  baby,  don't  get  in  a  fury, 
'Cause  mamma's  gone  to  sit  on  the  jury." 

To  Laramie  succeeded  darkness,  and  a  night's 
ride ;  but  the  moon  broke  in  upon  us,  with  the  mag- 
nificent scenery  of  the  railroad.  An  observation-car, 
in  early  morning,  was  attached  to  the  rear  of  the 
train,  to  give  all  the  passengers  an  opportunity  to  see 
the  Cafions,  the  Castle  Hock,  the  Hanging]  Rock,  the 
Pulpit  Rock,  the  Devil's  Slide,  the  Devil's  Gate  Sta- 
tion, etc.  We  wide  opened  our  eyes  and  our  ears, 
and  took  in  all ;  but  I  am  now  so  absorbed  in  the 
Holy  Land,  where  I  am,  that  scenery  is  nothing  to 
me  now.  I  tarry  over  the  Sabbath  to  worship  with 
the  Saints  in  the  Tabernacle ;  and,  if  I  can  get  time, 
you  shall  hear  more  from  me  before  I  go  into  the 
outer  darkness  of  the  telegraph  and  mail,  on  the 
boundless  Pacific  Ocean. 


LETTER  II. 

ON,   TO,  AND  OVER  THE  PACIFIC. 

The  Mormon  Holy  Land. — Geographically  like  the  Holy  Land  over  the  Sea. — flow 
Irrigation  has  made  the  Desert  a  Garden. — The  Apostles  and  Elders  of  Mormon- 
dom. — The  Holy  Temple. — Brigham  Young  in  the  Temple. — The  "Women  and 
the  Fashions  in  Salt  Lake  City. — Beelzebub  stirring  up  Rebellion. — The  Grass- 
hoppers and  the  Gulls. 

SALT  LAKE,  May  28,  1871. 

WHAT  to  say  of  this  extraordinary  place,  how  to 
picture  it,  its  industries,  its  progress,  its  great  achieve- 
ments, puzzle  me.  It  is  very  like  Jordan,  and  the 
Dead  Sea,  and  that  part  of  the  Holy  Land.  The 
Salt  Lake  is  the  Dead  Sea.  There  is  a  Jordan  here 
pouring  into  this  dead  salt  sea,  where  nothing  can 
live,  to  which  Dead  Sea,  here,  there  is  no  outlet, 
as  in  that  near  Jerusalem.  The  mountains  are  all 
about,  but  these  are  magnificent,  snow-covered  moun- 
tains, pouring  down  their  rich  waters  to  irrigate, 
awaken,  develop,  and  enrich  the  soil — to  drive  the 
miserable  sage  brush  off,  and  to  substitute  therefor 
all  sorts  of  grain,  and  roots,  and  fruits  that  can  make 
a  people  prosperous  and  happy.  When  Brigham,  the 
Prophet,  many  years  gone  by,  first  led  here  his 
driven-off  squadrons  (so  like  the  Israelites,  driven  off 
from  Egypt  to  wander  in  the  wilderness),  this  great 
valley,  with  its  sage  brush  and  its  rough  rocks, 


ON,  TO,  AND  OVER  THE  PACIFIC.  H 

must  have  looked  very  like  what  the  Dead  Sea  and 
Jordan  now  are;  but  Brigham  and  his  tribes  have 
made  it  teem  with  bread  and  honey,  and  to  blossom 
like  the  rose.  I  cannot  help,  therefore,  feeling  a  sort 
of  admiration  for  these  Illinois  and  Missouri,  but 
Yankee  led,  banished  prophets,  apostles,  and  elders, 
and  their  hosts  of  followers  from  Scandinavia  to 
Scotia — for  these  Celts,  Britons,  Germans,  Danes, 
Norwegians,  these  representatives  of  the  refuse  of  the 
world.  The  Lord,  or  the  Devil  (choose  which),  has 
here  chosen  the  humblest,  the  most  ignorant  instru- 
ments, to  do  the  greatest  things.  "  And  Love  rules  all," 
we  are  told,  and  we  see  it,  or  seem,  to  see  it,  through 
the  apostles  and  elders.  Love  brings  the  water  har- 
moniously down  from  the  mountains,  and  divides 
and  subdivides  the  torrent  into  little  streams,  and 
brooks,  and  rivulets,  and  they  flow  over  every  man's 
field,  by  every  man's  door,  and  the  patriarchs 
(most  of  them  very  unpromising-looking  patriarchs, 
though),  with  their  wives,  and  children,  and  flocks, 
drink  it  in,  or  see  the  earth  drink  it  in,  as  Egypt 
drinks  in  the  Nile  waters.  But  there  is  no  "  report " 
from  these  high  Courts  of  Love,  that  thus  rule  and 
regulate  all.  Reporters  are  not  admitted  to  the 
Council  of  the  apostles  and  elders.  There  are  no 
general  or  special  sessions,  that  we  know  of — no 
short-hand,  nor  long-hand  reporters,  no  stenograph- 
ers. But,  in  faith,  we  believe,  or  ought  to  believe, 
that  Love  rules  all  the  land,  and  subjects  all  to  its 
laws — for  here,  we  are  told,  is  the  Millennium,  nay, 


12  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

Paradise,  perhaps.  "Wonderful  people  !  La  Allah, 
as  the  Mussulman  says.  "  Great  is  God,  and  Brig- 
ham  is  His  prophet." 

Everybody  comes  here  now,  of  course,  unless  a 
body  is  in  such  a  hurry  that  Mecca,  or  Jerusalem,  is 
nothing  to  him.  The  curious  can  never  happily  pass 
over  the  great  Pacific  road  without  shooting  off',  on 
the  Mormon  tangent  railroad,  now  thirty-six  miles 
long,  to  see  this  Mecca  of  America.  I  shot  off  with 
a  New  York  party  on  this  railroad  tangent.  A  Mr. 
Townsend,  all  the  way  from  Maine,  with  only  three 
wives  (one  of  them  just  dead),  keeps  the  hotel  of  the 
city,  and  a  very  fair  and  quite  a  large  hotel  it  is,  but 
very  soon,  with  all  its  additions,  it  will  not  be  half 
big  enough,  especially  on  a  Sunday,  when  travellers 
most  desire  to  be  here,  to  worship  in  the  Tabernacle, 
or  Temple.  Think  what  a  day  of  rest  a  Sabbath  is 
here  !  We  breakfast  on  mountain  trout,  fresh  from 
the  icy  streams.  "We  march  in  the  long  trains  of 
Saints  and  Saintesses  to  the  holy  Temple.  A  hun- 
dred or  two,  or  more,  of  apostles  and  elders  sit  on  an 
elevated  platform,  and  we,  the  people,  in  mingled 
communion,  sit  below,  and  look  up  to  the  holy 
priesthood  while  they  dispense  the  Old  Testament 
of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment of  Jesus  Christ,  as  enlarged  and  expounded  by 
Joe  Smith,  in  his  new  Gospel  of  "  glorious  "  Revela- 
tion. Our  wives  and  progeny  are  all  about.  None 
of  us  have  less  than  one  child — some  forty,  or  fifty, 
or  sixty.  The  women  are  not  fascinating,  either  in 


OX,  TO,  AND  OVER  THE  PACIFIC.  13 

pretty  faces  (there  are  exceptions)  or  pretty  fashions. 
The  great  Prophet  Brigham  discourages  fashion,  but 
the  rascally  innovation  will  come  here,  and  is  some- 
what stronger  than  even  the  Prophet.  A  big  hoop 
rustles  around  us  now  and  then.  Occasionally  we 
see  a  coquettish  cap,  nicknamed  a  bonnet ;  silks,  if 
not  satins,  also  intrude ;  but  the  great  mass  of  the 
women  bring  here  their  hats  and  robes,  from  their 
mothers  and  great-grandmothers,  and  the  result  is  a 
head-gear  representative  here  of  Swede,  of  Scot,  of 
Celt,  of  Yankee,  the  patterns,  perhaps,  of  ten  genera- 
tions behind,  with  scoots  of  Quaker  formation,  and 
umbrellas  of  Italian  conception.  A  photograph  of 
Salt  Lake  fashions  might  suggest  ideas  to  Eugenie, 
perhaps,  if  ever  she  recovers  the  fashionable  domin- 
ion of  the  world. 

"We  listened  profoundly,  for  one  hour  and  more, 
to  a  very  clever  discourse  of  an  elder,  or  apostle, 
here,  a  Mr.  Cannon,  who  does  double  duty — first,  as 
daily  editor  of  the  Deseret  Journal,  and  next,  as 
preacher ;  but  our  great  desire  was  to  see  Brigham, 
to  hear  Brigham,  and  to  drink  in  the  gospel  of  Joe 
Smith,  the  martyr,  as  dropped  from  the  lips  of  Brig- 
ham.  Heaven  prospered  our  desires.  Brigham  arose 
— a  good-looking  man,  now  of  seventy  years,  very 
like  Tom  Benton,  the  Missouri  Senator,  in  his  latter 
days — neatly  and  meekly  dressed  (by  what  wife  ?  a 
wicked  Gentile  woman  asked  us),  and  he  shrewdly, 
ably  expounded  his  creed.  There  is  no  doubt  of  the 
all-sorts-of-ability  of  this  remarkable  man,  whether  he 


14  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

be  preacher,  prophet,  governor,  ruler,  banker,  farmer, 
railroad  builder,  miner,  husband,  or  father.  The 
Saints  all  look  up,  and  marvel,  and  wonder,  and  even 
we  sinners  looked  up,  and  marvelled,  and  wondered. 
He  told  us  (and  it  was  new  to  all  of  us)  the  City  of 
Enoch  was  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  the  waters 
would  one  day  recede  northward,  and  the  city  come 
up  again — while  all  the  isles  of  the  Gulf  would  be  re- 
annexed  to  our  continent,  and  become  part  and 
parcel  of  the  United  States  (even  St.  Domingo,  per- 
haps, without  Grant's  treaty  of  purchase  and  annexa- 
tion). 

Brigham,  however,  is  not  much  longer  to  have 
undisputed  religious  dominion  here,  his  worshippers 
tell  us.  Beelzebub  is  stirring  up  rebellion.  The 
Episcopalians  have  planted  a  church  here  (wonder 
where  the  money  comes  from),  costing  forty  or  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  The  Roman  Catholics  are  already 
here.  The  Methodists  are  about  to  invade  Utah 
with  one  of  their  prodigious  camp-meetings,  raking 
in  Methodists,  there,  from  the  Missouri,  at  Omaha,  to 
San  Francisco,  on  the  Pacific.  They  threaten  to 
capture  Brigham  and  all  his  hosts.  Brigham,  gener- 
ously or  tauntingly,  offered  them  his  huge  new  Taber- 
nacle, holding  13,000  people,  with  its  galleries,  new, 
and  the  big  organ,  perhaps  the  biggest  in  the  world, 
to  be  thrown  in,  for  their  great  Love  Feast ;  but 
they  declined  the  taint,  or  the  taunt,  and  they  turn 
up  in  tents,  in  the  open  fields,  under  a  cloudless 
sky.  If  any  sect  can  capture  Brigham  and  his  hosts, 


ON,  TO,  AND  OVER  THE  PACIFIC.  15 

it  is  the  Methodists ;  but  they  cannot  sing  half  as 
loud  as  his  ten  or  twelve  thousand  congregation; 
they  cannot  cry  "  Amen  "  as  loud,  and  they  cannot 
pray  louder.  Their  priesthood,  close,  and  compact, 
and  powerful  as  it  is,  is  not  half  so  close,  compact, 
and  powerful  as  his.  I  should  like  to  be  there  to  see 
the  great  battle  of  the  hosts ;  but  I  am  bound  for  the 
land  of  Confucius,  and  the  heathen  Chinee,  and  the 
Hindoo,  and  the  Mussulman,  and  shall  never  see  the 
great  fight  among  the  mountains  of  Utah. 

The  grasshoppers,  not  the  Gentiles,  are  the  great- 
est enemies  of  the  Mormons.  They  eat  up  every- 
thing, at  times,  and  half-starve  out  the  delving  Saints. 
But  Providence,  Brigham  told  us,  has  come  to  the 
rescue  of  the  Saints.  The  gulls,  never  before  known 
here,  were  sent  to  eat  the  grasshoppers  up.  They 
came  in  swarms,  devoured  the  grasshoppers  in  the 
fields,  vomited  them  up  in  the  deadly  waters  of  Salt 
Lake,  returned  for  more,  re-did  the  like,  and  thus 
freed  Mormondom  from  the  pest.  The  Gentiles  are 
coming  in,  in  swarms,  though,  to  work  the  mines. 
They  find  the  money  ;  Brigham  finds  the  workmen, 
on  hire.  The  Emma  mine  is  a  new  silver  mine,  just 
sold  to  Californians  and  New-Yorkers  for  over  a  mil- 
lion, to  be  converted  into  a  five  million  stock.  The 
valley  below  here  (south)  is  said  to  be  full  of  mines 
on  the  mountain  sides.  Brigham  has  just  concluded 
a  contract  with  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  directors 
to  extend  his  thirty-sixth-mile  road  twenty  miles 
further,  that  Company  finding  the  iron,  and  Brigham 


16  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

doing  the  grading,  for  only  eight  hundred  dollars  per 
mile — for  there  is  little  or  no  grading  or  bridging 
to  do.  There  is  no  doubt  that  all  Southern  Utah  is 
more  or  less  abounding  in  silver  mines ;  and  capital- 
ists are  here  on  hand  looking  after  them.  The 
Townsend  Hotel  is  full  of  adventurers  in  mining. 
"What  effect  all  this  invasion  is  to  have  upon  Brigham 
and  his  Saints  is  not  exactly  to  be  foreseen ;  but 
when  the  Prophet  has  a  new  revelation,  from  Joe 
Smith  or  any  other  divine  revelator,  abolishing  poly- 
gamy for  the  future  (now  that  the  country  is  settled, 
not  at  present,  of  course),  then  Brigham  and  his  Saints 
have  an  organization  that  can  and  will  successfully 
contend  with  Methodism  or  any  other  religious  de- 
nomination. The  double,  triple,  quadruple,  if  not 
centuple,  wife  system  will  not  stand  fire  now.  Its 
day  was  over  with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  when 
the  world  was  to  be  settled.  I  expect  every  day  to 
hear  some  such  new  revelation  from  the  great  Tem- 
ple, and  Brigham,  the  great  Knight  Templar. 

I  visited  every  thing,  or  almost  every  thing,  the 
two  days  I  was  here — the  sulphur,  natural,  warm- 
baths  in  the  city  ;  the  barracks  (Camp  Douglas),  four 
miles  off,  where  we  station  a  general  and  several 
companies,  to  frighten  the  Saints  to  keep  order,  and 
the  theatre,  Saturday  night — a  first-class  theatre,  too, 
with  a  building  as  fine,  and  acting  as  good,  as  two- 
thirds  of  the  theatres  of  New  York — (the  Prophet, 
like  Beecher,  allows  his  followers  fun  and  frolic,  and 
assists  in  it,  now  and  then) — and  last,  not  least  of 


ON,  TO,  AND  OVER  THE  PACIFIC.  17 

all,  the  house,  the  home,  the  sanctum  of  the  great 
Prophet  himself.  Two  of  his  daughters  are  stock 
actresses.  But  I  must  draw  a  veil  over  all  that.  It 
is  not  right  for  sinners  to  talk  with  saints,  and  then 
tell,  is  it  ? 


LETTER  III. 

ON  AND  FROM  THE  PACIFIC. 

Around  the  World  only  a  "  Trip." — Snow  on  the  Mountains  and  Alkali  Plains. — Forty 
Miles  of  Snow-sheds. — Sudden  Descent  from  Ice  and  Snow  to  Apricots  and  Straw- 
berries.— Sacramento. — New  Eailroad  and  Steamboat  lioutes. 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  June  1,  1871. 

I  AM  about  leaving  in  the  Pacific  Mail  Co.'s 
steamer,  the  Japan,  for  Yokohama,  Yeddo,  Shanghai, 

Hankow,  Hong  Kong,  Canton,  and  ,  which  is 

about  as  far  as  my  geography  goes,  just  now. 
Hence,  I  must  scribble  in  pencil  as  fast  as  I  can. 
The  Pacific  Mail  steamers,  all  of  them,  are  first- 
class,  more  abounding  in  sea  comforts,  I  think,  than 
any  thing  we  have  on  the  Atlantic;  and  therefore 
Japan,  only  twenty-two  days  from  here,  is  not  much 
of  "  a  trip,"  so  it  seems  to  me  now,  though  Japan 
once  did  seem  a  great  way  off — as  far  off  as  was  Cal- 
ifornia from  Boston  in  the  days  of  my  youth — that 
is,  the  jumping-off  place  of  the  world.  If  the  tropics 
do  not  threaten  to  burn  us  up  in  July  and  August,  I 
shall  "  trip  "  it  around  the  world.  Every  thing,  you 
know,  in  this  country  is  a  "  trip,"  even  a  journey 
around  the  world. 

"We  left  the  snowy  mountain  surroundings  of  the 
Salt  Lake  Yalley  after  "  meeting,"  on  Sunday,  May 


ON  AND  FROM  THE  PACIFIC.  19 

28,  and  in  a  short  time  reached  Ogden,  the  end  of 
the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  owned  mainly  in  Boston 
and  New  York,  and  the  beginning  of  the  Central 
Pacific  Railroad,  owned  all  in  San  Francisco  and 
Sacramento.  The  sun  was  hot ;  but  hot  suns  here 
are  not  like  hot  suns,  East — the  air  is  so  dry  and  ex- 
hilarating. A  long-troubling  cough  I  brought  with 
me  from  "Washington  is  rapidly  going,  and  when  I 
reach  the  Alkali  plains  I  am  sure  it  will  all  be  gone, 
This  is  the  very  land  for  consumption,  bronchitis, 
or  the  like,  if  patients  are  not  too  far  gone ;  though 
Brigham  Young  told  us,  in  his  discourse,  his  voice 
was  about  worn  up,  though  his  body  was  as  vigorous 
as  ever.  But,  May  29,  strange  to  say — a  phenome- 
non here  now — a  heavy  rain  met  us,  succeeded  by  a 
snow-storm,  re-whitening  all  the  mountains,  covering 
even  the  Alkali  plains,  and  making  them  whiter 
than  the  Alkali.  But  the  rain  and  snow  saved  us  from 
the  trying  dust  of  these  plains.  Our  cars  were  as 
pleasant  as  ever,  and  we  have  been  in  them  so  long 
now,  that  they  seem  like  home — sweet  home,  too, 
when  contrasted  with  the  rough  cabins  we  often  pass 
in  the  rough-looking  towns  and  villages.  The  wind- 
mills increase,  forcing  up  the  water  for  the  railroad 
tanks.  There  are  three  stations  where  water  has  to 
be  brought  in  car-tanks  to  feed  the  locomotives. 
"  Lots  of  Indians,"  dirty,  filthy  Piutes,  are  out  beg- 
ging whiskey,  or  money  to  buy  whiskey  with. 
"  Backsheesh  "  squaws,  in  the  "West  as  well  as  in  the 
East,  sling  papooses  over  their  backs  to  touch  the 


20  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

sympathies  of  ladies  in  the  cars.  The  morning  of 
the  29th  we  passed  the  Summit  House  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada,  hid,  however,  in  the  midst  of  high  snow- 
sheds  ;  but  the  snow,  as  I  should  judge  from  peeps 
through  the  crevasses,  was  nearly  a  foot  deep. 
Icicles  were  trickling  down  these  snow-sheds.  Slid- 
ing on  the  board  walks  of  the  restaurant  places  was 
the  traveller's  fun.  These  snow-sheds  on  these  moun- 
tain sides  are  "  cursed  "  by  travellers,  when  panting 
to  see  the  mountain  tops.  "  Plague  on  them,"  was 
the  universal  cry  for  forty  miles ;  but  they  save  the 
traveller  from  all  delays  in  the  winter,  and  are  here 
indispensably  necessary  to  keep  open  the  road.  Two 
engines  took  up  our  long  train  of  cars,  lengthened 
the  night  before  by  an  Uncle  Sam's  cavalry  troop, 
bound  from  Fort  McDermot,  in  Nevada,  to  Arizona 
(via  Benicia),  to  fight  the  Camanches  there.  Soon, 
however,  very  soon  (two  hours  and  forty  minutes), 
we  were  in  the  valley  of  the  rich  Sacramento — the 
hay  harvest  over,  the  wheat  ready  to  cut,  apricots 
and  strawberries  and  cherries  abundant,  new  potatoes 
on  our  table,  every  surrounding  seeming  like  mid- 
summer, the  sun  hot  and  high,  and  vegetation  all 
parched  up,  save  the  ever-green  grape-vines.  Is  this 
America  ?  Is  this  in  our  country  ?  Isn't  it  in  Lorn- 
bardy,  from  the  Alpine  descent,  or,  on  the  Po,  or, 
further  on  southward,  in  Naples,  say,  near  the  lava 
of  Vesuvius  ?  Sometimes  the  cars  come  down  from 
the  Sierra  all  covered  with  snow,  while  the  dust  is 
blowing  in  the  streets  of  Sacramento ! 


ON  AND  FROM  THE  PACIFIC.  21 

Sacramento  is  the  ambitious  capital  of  California, 
with  a  huge,  costly  dome  on  a  State-house,  now  aris- 
ing, and  not  yet  done.  I  thought,  two  years  ago, 
when  here,  I  had  dropped  down  from  the  Alps  into 
Milan — such  were  the  fruits,  and  such  were  the 
seeming  luxuries  of  the  climate.  But  we  tarry  here 
no  more.  "  On,"  "  on"  ever  "  ON,"  is  the  law  of  the 
steam-car.  "  Fifteen  minutes  for  dinner,"  never  over 
twenty-five  or  thirty.  The  wonder  is,  we  Ameri- 
cans do  not  all  die,  eating  as  we  do ;  but  we  take 
on  lunch  baskets  here  and  elsewhere,  cherries,  boxes 
of  strawberries,  apricots,  California  claret,  Yankee 
doughnuts  even,  strayed  thus  far  (crullers  is  the 
Middle  States  or  California  name  for  them) ;  and 
thus,  you  see,  we  cannot  starve.  Sacramento  is  one 
hundred  and  thirty-five  miles  by  rail  from  San  Fran- 
cisco, about  sixty  or  seventy  by  the  shortest  rail  and 
water  route. 

Speaking  of  railroads,  I  find  here  not  a  little 
excitement  about  a  new  rail  route  to  run  from  San 
Francisco,  not  so  much  over,  as  around  the  Sierras, 
to  Ogden,  to  connect  with  the  Union  Pacific  there. 
Rich  men  and  richer  resources  are  in  the  new  idea. 
The  plan,  substantially,  is  to  use  the  existing  Yallejo 
and  Marysville  Railroad,  and  from  thence  to  fork  off, 
connecting  with  Ben  Holliday's  Portland  (Oregon) 
Road,  through  the  Willamette  Valley,  and  thence, 
from  Klamath  Lake  down  to  Snake  River.  The 
Central  Railroad  people  say  this  route  will  be  two 
hundred  or  three  hundred  miles  longer;  the  new 


22  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

railroad  people  say,  forty  miles  shorter.  Surveys 
alone  can  settle  the  question ;  but  sooner  or  later,  if 
for  nothing  else,  for  the  Oregon  trade,  this  road  will 
be  made ;  and  the  Union  Pacific  will  have  two  forks, 
one,  on  to  San  Francisco  (the  Central),  and  the  other, 
into  Oregon  and  San  Francisco.  There  is  room  here 
for  all. 

I  have  a  thousand  pleasant  things  to  say  of  this 
rising  city — this  New  York  of  the  Pacific  West7  its 
Japan  and  Chinese  gateway,  and  Australia's  gate- 
way, too,  where  steamers  are  now  running,  under 
the  invigorating  auspices  of  our  Wm.  H.  Webb,  who 
is  here,  looking  after  his  line.  I  see  on  the  wharves 
of  the  Pacific  Mail  Company,  coffee,  said  to  be  as 
good  as  the  Java,  from  Central  America,  and  sugar, 
in  quantities,  in  bags,  and  cassia,  etc.,  all  things 
indicating  a  fresh,  growing  commerce.  But  the  big 
ship  Japan  has  her  steam  up,  threatening  to  cut  me 
off,  if  I  go  on  pencilling  longer ;  and  so  you  will  not 
hear  from  me  again  till  I  am  "down  East,"  some- 
where among  the  Antipodes,  who  are  under  our  feet, 
just  now.  Am  I  going  East,  or  West,  to-day  ? 
What  say  geographers?  Is  Japan  down  East,  or 
farther  out  West  ?  Is  this  the  end  of  "  the  great 
West,"  or,  the  beginning  of  that  unknown  land  our 
starting  point?  My  head  is  all  agog  with  these 
extraordinary  geographical  and  time  calculations. 
My  watch  is  not  worth  a  sixpence,  measured  by  New 
York  time.  While  we  breakfast,  you  dine,  and  while 
we  dine,  you  go  to  bed.  I  telegraph,  and  you  get 


ON  AND  FROM   THE  PACIFIC.  23 

my  telegram  before  it  starts.  How  will  it  be  in  the 
East,  or  the  West,  where  I  am  going  ?  I  am  losing 
a  day  of  my  life  now  by  travelling.  Shall  I  gain  it 
by  keeping  on  ?  We  shall  see.  But — "  All  on  board 
that's  going !  "  and  I  close.  "  Adieu,"  "  adieu." 


LETTEK  IY. 

ON  THE  PACIFIC. 

From  the  Golden  Gate  to  Yokohama. — The  "Japan,"  and  the  motley  Crowd  on 
board. — Is,  or  is  not,  the  Pacific  Ocean  a  Humbug? — The  Amusements  on  board. 
— The  Police  of  the  Ship. — Spoke  a  Boston  Ship. — Meeting  a  Steamer  in  Mid- 
ocean,  exchanging  Mails,  etc. 

June  1,  1871. 

WE  are  passing  the  Golden  Gate,  and  tlie  broad 
Pacific  is  opening  around  us  for  a  long,  long  voyage 
— four  thousand  seven  hundred  and  eighty  miles  to 
Yokohama,  in  Japan,  twenty-two  days  off,  if  not 
more,  the  rate  we  are  to  run.  What  a  motley 
crowd  we  have  just  taken  on  board — the  returning 
Japanese,  Governor  Ito  &  Co.,  who  have  just  been 
making  the  tour  of  the  United  States,  with  Japan- 
ese women  (not  belonging  to  them,  though),  very 
much  resembling  our  Indian  squaws,  but  pretty 
well  dressed,  and  with  more  intelligence ;  hundreds 
of  Chinese,  almost  all  men,  but  a  few  women,  who 
have  made  "their  fortune"  in  America,  now  re- 
turning home  to  enjoy  it;  and  Englishmen,  travel- 
ling for  pleasure,  and  Germans,  and  Scotchmen, 
and  the  universal  Yankee  nation,  of  course.  A 
Chinese  "  fortune  " — happy  people — is  only  three  or 


ON  THE  PACIFIC.  25 

four  hundred  dollars,  not  the  New  York  three  or  four 
millions ;  and  the  "  heathen  Chinee  "  is  happy  in  hav- 
ing earned  enough  to  live  hereafter  magnificently  at 
home.  They  scattered  bits  of  paper  on  the  water 
as  we  left  the  wharf,  to  appease  their  Joss  (the  God) 
of  the  Sea,  and  to  bribe  him  to  give  us  a  prosperous 
voyage.  "We  have  three  missionary  women  on  board, 
from  Albany  and  near  by,  going  to  Japan,  to  turn 
the  Buddhists  there  into  Christians — hopeless  task, 
I  fear.  All  these,  with  Chinese  sailors,  all,  or  nearly 
all,  to  manage  the  ship — Chinese  servants,  all — a 
Yankee  captain,  from  Cape  Cod,  of  course — a  doctor, 
a  purser,  a  steward,  etc.,  make  up  our  motley  crowd, 
and  are  to  be  our  companions  over  three  weeks,  on 
the  way. 

The  sailing  of  a  steamship  from  a  Pacific  port  is 
an  affair  very  different  from  that  of  the  sailing  of  an 
Atlantic  steamship  from  New  York.  All  Chin  adorn 
and  Japonicadom  come  down  to  see  us  off.  The 
hard,  harsh  jangle  of  Chinadom  on  the  wharf,  scream- 
ing "  adieux,"  was  mingled  with  the  softer,  gentler, 
and  more  Tuscan-like  notes  of  the  Japanese;  while 
English,  and  German,  and  French,  and  Italian,  and 
Spanish,  in"  our  cabin,  bade  the  politer  adieu.  "We 
took  on  provisions  enough  to  feed  a  city — buttocks, 
beasts  of  other  kinds,  sheep,  henneries  and  duckeries, 
with  tenants  too  full  to  count ;  vegetables,  fresh  from 
the  Eden  gardens  of  California ;  fruits  of  many  kinds, 
with  apricots  and  strawberries,  luscious  to  look  at 
now,  however  they  may  look,  or  taste,  when  Neptune 


26  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

exacts  his  tributes  from  us,  a  few  hours  hence.    We 
shall  live,  I  see,  if  we  do  not  die  of  sea-sickness. 


June  3. 

The  Pacific  Ocean  is  a  humbug.  For  twenty-four 
hours  I  have  been  tossed,  and  rocked,  and  turned 
inside  out,  just  as  I  have  been  on  that  rough,  boister- 
ous, reckless  bosom  of  waters  they  call  the  Atlantic, 
that  never  made  any  pretensions  to  gentleness  or 
gentility.  There  is  nothing  Pacific  on  this  ocean  as 
yet.  This  is  the  second  time  I  have  tried  it,  north- 
ward, though,  once  before,  as  far  up  as  Yancouver ; 
but  the  captain  promises  better  behavior  from  the 
winds  and  the  waves,  as  soon  as  we  get  far  enough 
off  from  the  northerly  winds  of  the  California  and 
Oregon  coast. 


June  6. 

The  Pacific  Ocean  is  not  a  humbug ;  but  the  best- 
behaved,  best-looking  sea  I  ever  was  on.  There  has 
not  been  a  ripple  on  the  water  for  forty-eight  hours. 
There  is  not  a  sea-sick  victim  on  board.  Sunday, 
June  4,  the  captain  read  the  Episcopal  service  in 
"  the  Social  Hall,"  the  upper,  frescoed,  lookout  deck 
of  the  ship,  and  all  the  Christians  on  board  assembled 
to  hear  him — not  the  Buddhists,  nor  the  devotees  of 
Confucius,  of  course.  Our  missionary  women  sang 
their  hymns,  and  the  piano,  acting  as  organ,  accom- 


ON  THE  PACIFIC.  27 

panied  them.  We  read,  we  -write,  we  play  shuffle- 
board  on  deck  (not  on  Sunday,  though),  and  pitch 
quoits,  with  cards  and  backgammon,  and  walk  and 
talk.  The  Japanese  are  reading.  Japanese  novels, 
with  illustrative  pictures  all  over  them,-  quite  equal- 
ling the  genius  of  the  New  York  publishers,  or 
instructing  us  in  words  we  deem  it  necessary  to 
learn.  "  Ohio  "  means  "  good  morning,"  and  in  the 
morning  we  "  ohio  "  all  we  see.  Thus  we  pass  time, 
with  the  five  meals  per  day,  if  we  choose  to  eat  so 
many,  but  with  appetites  that  seem  insatiable  after 
our  tributes  to  the  sea. 

The  police  of  this  ship  is  so  admirable  that  I  must 
give  the  captain,  Freeman,  a  puff  therefor.  There  is 
a  cry  of  "  Fire,"  "  Fire" — that  terrible  cry  aboard 
ship,  in  mid-Pacific  sea — but  a  mock  cry  here,  to  test 
the  crew,  and  on  the  instant,  every  Chinaman  is  at 
his  post,  with  streams  of  water  flowing  from  hose  all 
over  the  deck,  and  ready  to  rush  anywhere  he  is  sent. 
The  life-boat  is  unrolled,  and  the  India-rubber,  can- 
vas-covered raft  is  blown  up  in  a  very  short  time. 
The  captain  took  some  of  us,  last  evening,  all  over 
his  ship.  The  neatness  of  the  cuisine,  the  pantry, 
and  all  the  outworks  indicate  a  husbandry,  I  must 
say — not  housewivery,  for  men  do  all  the  work — not 
unsurpassed  even  by  the  Rotterdam  or  Amsterdam 
Dutch.  The  stores  of  the  ship  all  pass  through  the 
purser's  accounts,  and  double  entry,  or  single  entry, 
tell  the  owners  of  every  thing  in  or  out.  The  Chinese 
passengers  on  board,  some  of  them,  are  going  to  their 


28  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

bunks ;  some  are  smoking  opium  in  nearly  an  air- 
tight cage  set  apart  especially  for  them  to  indulge 
that  vice  in,  and  others  reading,  or  telling  tales,  or 
playing  on  the  banjo,  we  call  it,  with  a  chip.  Happy 
they  all  seemed — the  happiest  of  all,  in  seeming,  the 
half-drunk  opium-smokers,  but  all  happy,  in  return- 
ing home  to  Hong-Kong,  at  fifty  dollars  only  of  cost, 
with  rice  enough  to  eat,  mixed  up  with  pork,  and 
devoured  with  chop-sticks — a  provender  far  better 
than  any  food  they  are  likely  to  have  hereafter  at 
home.  At  11  p.  M.,  "  Douse  the  glim  "  is  the  order  of 
the  night,  and  we  all  go  to  bed — Christians,  Buddh- 
ists, Confuciusists,  Europeans,  men,  women,  chil- 
dren, all — when  watchmen  in  every  part  of  the  ship 
watch  over  us  and  protect  us  during  the  night.  I 
feel  as  safe — I  hope  I  am  not  to  be  mistaken — as  in 
my  own  bedroom  at  home,  and  the  doors  here  are  all 
unlocked,  and  the  windows  open  to  let  in  the  refresh- 
ing air. 

"  Ship  aJioy  !  "  That's  a  refreshing  sound,  even 
on  the  Atlantic  sea,  where  ships  are  crossing  and  re- 
crossing  all  the  time,  and  where  you  can  see  one 
almost  every  day.  But  here  on  the  Pacific  there  are 
few  or  no  ships,  and  little  or  no  crossing  and  recross- 
ing,  so  that  "  Ship  ahoy ! "  startles  us  all  up,  and  we 
all  rush  to  our  glasses  to  see.  As  the  morn  broke  in 
upon  us,  a  big  ship,  under  full  sail,  was  descried 
crossing  our  course,  and  soon  we  saw  the  American 
flag,  and  soon  after  a  boat  put  out  to  meet  us.  The 
ship  was  a  Boston  ship,  the  Daniel  Marcy,  one  hun- 


ON  THE  PACIFIC.  29 

dred  and  sixty-three  days  from  New  York,  having 
left  before  Christmas,  and  seen  nothing  since  ;  passed 
Cape  Horn,  lost  her  longitude,  and  wanted  to  know 
where  she  was.  There  was  a  woman  on  board  with 
four  sick  children,  seen  on  deck — how  many  under, 
deponent  cannot  say — and  for  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
three  days  no  news,  no  newspapers,  no  telegraphs, 
no  nothing  on  board  that  ship !  "Well,  that's  what  I 
came  here  for — not  exactly  to  get  out  of  the  world, 
but  to  be  upon  that  part  of  the  world  where  "  no 
nothing  "  could  get  after  me.  Our  captain  gave  his 
Yankee  confrere,  for  the  benefit  of  his  wife  and 
babies,  two  bags  of  new  (California)  potatoes,  fresh 
beef,  fresh  mutton,  and  fresh  newspapers ;  and,  when 
all  that  had  got  on  board  the  Daniel  Marcy,  there 
must  have  been  happiness  there,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  "  longitude." 

Latitude  36°  50',  longitude  142°  10'.  «  The  Mail 
closes  to-night  at  6  p.  M.,"  is  posted  up  on  our  ship. 
What  meaneth  this  ?  Why,  the  steamer  from  Japan 
(left  Yokohama  on  the  22d  of  May)  is  to  meet  us  to- 
night, or  to-morrow,  and  we  must  all  have  our  letters 
ready  to  send  home  to  our  friends.  Hence,  every- 
body is  writing  home ;  the  ladies  with  their  desks  on 
their  knees  (what  a  gift  they  have  in  being  able  to 
write  anyhow,  or  everywhere !),  and  we  gentlemen, 
in  the  cabin,  or  in  our  state-rooms,  on  our  wash- 
stands.  Pen,  ink,  paper,  and  pencil  are  in  the  great- 
est demand.  The  meeting  of  the  steamers  is  to  be 
another  great  event,  and  we  are  to  give  them  news 


30  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

from  Europe  and  America,  and  they  are  to  give  us 
news  from  Niphon,  and  the  Tycoon,  or  the  Mikado. 
There  are  "  politics  "  in  Japan,  I  am  learning,  as  in 
the  United  States,  and  I  am  becoming  as  interested 
in  Mikados  and  Tycoons  as  in  General  Grant  or  St. 
Domingo.  What's  the  news  from — not  New  York, 
but  the  Corea  ?  Our  little  fleet,  I  hear,  has  gone  up 
to  open  Corea,  or  Korea — a  part  of  the  Chinese  ap- 
pendage dominion  not  yet  opened  by  gunpowder. 
"What  is  the  value  of  an  Itzebu  (Japanese  paper 
money),  two  New  York  shillings,  or  three  ? "  ' '  How 
are  we  to  live  or  board  in  Yedo  ? "  "  Will  the  Dai- 
mio's  retainers  stab  or  cut  up  us,  foreign  devils  \ "  as 
the  Chinese  call  us.  These  are  all  most  important 
questions ;  but  the  Japanese  on  board  say  we  shall 
have  no  trouble,  and  shall  travel  as  pleasantly  as  in 
JSTew  York  or  California.  We  shall  see. 


LETTEE  Y. 

ON    THE    PACIFIC. 

Life  and  Thoughts  on  Ship-board.— The  Day  Lost  in  Hounding  the  "World.— 
"Down  East"  is  out  West. — A  Puzzled  Traveller. — Summer  Life  on  this  Ocean. 
— The  Second  Exchange  of  Letters. — The  Sixteenth  Amendment. —  Curious 
Congregation  of  Passengers. 

June,  1871— Lat.  36°  N.,  Lon.  180°  E. 

No  date,  you  see.  "We  have  dropped  out  Friday, 
which  ought  to  be  June  16th,  1871,  but  we  have 
dropped  it  out  (a  dies  non),  and  it  is  Saturday  now, 
June  17.  We  have  not  had  any  Friday,  and  never 
shall  have  any  June  16.  There  are  but  six  days  to 
us  this  week — nay,  only  five,  from  Sunday  to  Sun- 
day. I  am  puzzling  over  this  in  geography  and  on 
chart,  and,  though  doubtless  it  is  all  clear  enough  to 
the  navigator  and  astronomer,  I  have  found  it  not 
so  easy  to  store  it  away  in  my  head.  Watches,  days 
and  days  ago,  I  found  to  be  good  for  nothing  to  the 
traveller  by  steam,  but  the  sudden  loss  of  faith  in 
almanacs  and  the  calendar  is  confusing.  London,  I 
am  told,  is  just  under  our  feet,  or  Greenwich  rather, 
the  astronomer's  headquarters,  and  we  are  180°  (of 
the  360°)  around  the  world,  that  is,  half  around — 
from  Greenwich,  and  we  have,  therefore,  lost  a  day, 
by  the  chronometer  time  of  Greenwich.  I  expect  to 


32  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

have  all  this  clear  by  the  time  I  get  to  Greenwich, 
but  nothing  is  very  clear  just  now  in  my  muddled 
mind,  save  that  there  is  no  "Friday,  June  16,"  for 
us,  as  for  the  rest  of  mankind.  We  are  not  in  Gibeon 
nor  the  Valley  of  Ajalon,  with  enemies  to  avenge,  as 
Joshua  had,  when  he  ordered  the  sun  and  moon  to 
stand  still ;  but,  the  sun  stands  still  to  us,  in  this  wild 
wilderness  of  waters,  as  we  lose  the  day,  and  there  is 
no  Friday,  June  16, 1871,  to  us,  and  there  never  will 
be! 

But,  as  one  approaches  the  portals  of  the  rising 
sun,  one  must  expect  to  be  puzzled.  Every  thing 
ahead  is  beginning  to  be,  or  seems  to  be,  topsy-turvy. 
We  are  going  West,  and  have  been  going  West  some 
sixteen  days,  to  get  East.  We  are  going  to  the  set- 
ting of  the  sun  to  approach  its  rising !  In  my  early 
days  in  Maine  the  more  "  down  East "  I  went,  the 
more  I  saw  of  the  "  Eastern  stage,"  promising  to  take 
passengers  further  East.  I  then  searched  for  that 
"  East "  at  the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  but  I  gave 
it  up,  as  there  was  then  running  an  "Eastern  stage ! " 
In  later  days,  Cincinnati  was  "  West,"  Chicago,  the 
"  far  West,"  and  St.  Paul's  and  St.  Louis,  the  end  of 
•'  the  boundless  West ; "  but  here  I  am,  some  twen- 
ty-three days  from  New  York,  all  the  while  going 
West,  and  that  "  Will  o'  the  Wisp  "  is  not  reached, 
and  never  will  be.  As  if  all  these  things  could  not 
enough  puzzle  one,  or  seem  enough  topsy-turvy,  I 
see  the  Japanese  and  Chinese  on  board  reading  up- 
side down,  from  right  to  left,  in  perpendicular  in- 


ON  THE  PACIFIC.  33 

stead  of  horizontal  lines,  and  their  books  begin 
where  ours  end — the  preface,  where  our  finis  is. 
Their  locks  on  their  boxes  and  trunks  are  all  made 
to  lock  by  turning  the  key  from  the  left  to  the  right. 
Their  carpenters  use  the  plane  by  drawing  it  to 
them,  and  their  tailors  stitch  from  them.  All  this, 
perhaps,  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  among  people 
whose  night  is  our  day,  and  whose  heads  are  under 
our  heels,  but  they  confuse  one's  senses,  more  espe- 
cially when  one  sees  a  day  dropped  out  from  under 
one,  and  the  sun,  as  it  were,  standing  still  without  a 
miracle ! 

I  have  been  hesitating  for  some  days  whether  or 
not  I  shall  give  the  Pacific  Ocean  a  good  character 
or  a  bad  one ;  but,  upon  the  whole,  I  have  concluded 
it  deserves  a  certificate,  more  especially  in  contrast 
with  the  Atlantic,  the  English  Channel,  the  Bay  of 
Fundy,  the  Mediterranean,  Lake  Ontario,  or  any 
other  like  rowdy  seas.  The  Pacific,  though,  if  a 
taking,  is  rather  a  cheating,  Christian  name,  for  it 
does  kick  up  and  flop  over  at  times,  and  flutters  often. 
It  is  not  everlastingly  pacific,  that  is  certain  ;  but, 
upon  the  whole,  it  is  a  pretty-well-behaved  ocean — 
this  part  of  it  at  least,  where  no  typhoons  or  cyclones 
rage.  In  June,  a  big  steamer  like  this,  the  Japan, 
with  plenty  of  men  on  board,  is  a  yacht  that  a  New 
York  commodore  might  envy,  and  such  as  Cleopatra, 
who  led  astray  so  many  Romans  in  her  galley,  never 
dreamed  of.  And  we  carry  with  us  a  sort  of  minia- 
ture Newport  or  New  London ;  we  eat,  we  drink, 


34:  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

we  make  merry,  we  dance,  we  sing ;  material  pleas- 
ures only,  but  we  read,  we  write,  we  think,  we  preach, 
we  pray,  we  do  every  thing  on  board  that  people 
do  at  Newport  or  Long  Branch  in  summer,  besides 
having  two  Sundays  now  in  one  week.  Sure,  an 
ocean  where  all  this  can  be  done,  deserves  a  certifi- 
cate of  good  character,  and  it  is  hereby  written — 

That  if,  in  summer,  a  man  with  his  family  would 
go  a  yachting,  on  a  pleasure  "  trip "  only,  there  is 
nothing  like  this  on  the  Pacific,  more  especially  if 
on  one's  way  to  Japan  to  see  the  drolleries  and  curi- 
osities of  the  East,  where  something  new  must  ever 
turn  up,  and  something  fresh  must  ever  be  seen. 

There  is  a  pleasure  even  in  having  one's  senses 
muddled,  as  mine  are,  in  the  loss  of  a  real  live  day, 
and  in  being  among  people  who  turn  every  thing  in- 
side out  or  upside  down. 

Besides  the  study  of  navigation  on  board  ship, 
"  horizon,"  "  altitude,"  "  parallax,"  etc.,  etc.,  we 
naturally  study  up  and  talk  of  a  great  many  other 
things.  The  "  Japs  "  are  educating  us  on  their  re- 
cent revolutions,  on  the  Tycoon,  Mikado,  and  Daimio 
nobles,  and  telling  us  how  to  travel  in  Niphon,  or  re- 
lating the  marvels  of  Yedo.  We  see  them  read 
their  novels,  and  we  beg  for  translations  thereof.  Ja- 
pan already  has  become  quite  familiar  with  us.  While 
America  has  our  hearts,  with  all  that  is  in  it — that 
America,  now  so  far  away,  and  so  rapidly  running 
under  our  feet — we  much  discuss  which  is  the  near- 
est route  to  Japan  and  China,  whether  over  Puget 


ON  THE  PACIFIC.  35 

Sound  or  by  San  Francisco.  Longitude  narrows, 
you  know,  as  we  reach  the  North  Pole;  hence, 
Puget  Sound  (north)  is,  on  the  great  circle,  nearer 
than  San  Francisco  (south) ;  but  there  is  no  sailing 
on  that  great  circle.  There  are  islands  northward  in 
the  way,  and  the  winds  are  not  favorable.  Yoko- 
hama, Japan,  however,  is  4,780  miles  as  we  sail  on 
the  chart  from  San  Francisco,  but  only  4,100  miles 
from  Puget  Sound,  so  that  over  603  miles  can  be 
saved  from  the  Sound  over  the  North  Pacific  Kail- 
road — say  from  New  York  to  Yokohama,  now  the 
great  seaport  of  Japan,  and  en  route  to  Shanghai  and 
Hong  Kong.  The  San  Francisco  journalists,  how- 
ever, will  not  admit  this — nay,  will  cipher  it  away, 
or  try  to ;  but  I  have  measured  it  on  the  chart,  and 
it  seems  truly  so.  Puget  Sound,  too,  is  the  best  in- 
ternal sheet  of  water  in  the  United  States  (haud  non 
expertus  loquor\  navigable  to  the  very  shores,  well 
timbered,  and  the  climate  by  no  means  so  cold  as 
the  latitude  indicates.  We  discuss  lines  of  tele- 
graph, too.  "We  Yankees  now  must  reach  the  East. 
John  Bull  has  just  stretched  his  wiry  arms  out 
beyond  Bombay  and  Calcutta,  and  his  "tick"  is  now 
heard  from  London  to  Shanghai,  and  in  the  Yang- 
Tze-Kiang — the  Amazon  and  Mississippi  of  the  Chi- 
nese world.  What  can  we  do  ?  How  can  we  thus 
"  tick  ?  "  We  must  bargain  with  the  Russians,  it 
seems  to  me,  and  stretch  our  wires  through  Alaska 
and  the  Aleutian  Islands  to  Petropaulauski  in  Kam- 
schatka,  and  thence  down  the  Kurile  Islands  to 


36  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

Japan,  thence  to  Saghalin  (now  a  long  Russian  isl- 
and, stolen  from  the  Japanese),  and  thence  to  the 
Amoor  or  Manchuria.  The  two  great  friendly  Gov- 
ernments can  thus  encircle  .the  world,  and  be  in- 
dependent of  all  Europe,  save  Russia  in  Europe. 
The  real  greatness  of  Russia  is  now  for  the  first  time 
bursting  upon  my  vision — not  Russia  in  Europe, 
for  I  comprehended  all  that,  but  Russia  in  Asia, 
which  now  commands  the  frontier  of  China,  and,  in 
commanding  the  sea  of  Japan,  and  the  sea  of  Ok- 
hotsh,  commands,  also,  more  or  less,  the  whole  JSTorth 
Pacific  Ocean.  We  ignorant  politicians  have  much 
to  learn  from  our  whalers,  even,  I  see ;  and  I  am 
hearing,  on  ship  board,  their  voyages,  their  tales,  and 
adventures,  and  no  romances  are  more  delightful 
reading  just  now. 

Well,  well;  with  no  telegraph,  no  newspapers, 
no  nothing  about  us  but  a  whale  or  two,  and  sea- 
gulls, and  white  birds,  and  porpoises — politics,  nor 
electricity,  nor  rails,  ought  ever  to  enter  our  brains ; 
but  bad  habits  of  thinking  follow  one,  even  when 
sent  off  to  rest.  And  sure,  there  is  no  rest  like  this 
on  the  Pacific.  Eating  is  the  great  order  of  the  day. 
We  eat,  if  we  please,  at  6  A.  M.  (a  sort  of  French 
breakfast,  tea,  coffee,  and  crust),  really  breakfast  at 
9  A.  M.,  lunch  at  noon,  dine  at  6  P.  M.,  and  tea  at 
8£.  Next  to  eating,  if  not  over,  or  above  it,  is  sleep- 
ing. We  sleep  and  we  eat;  we  eat  and  we  sleep. 
When  Sancho  Panza  exclaimed,  "  Blessed  be  the 
man  that  invented  sleep,"  he  was  thinking,  doubt- 


ON  THE  PACIFIC.  37 

less,  only  of  Castile  and  Arragon;  but  doubly 
blessed  be  the  man  that  invented  sleep  for  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  The  days  would  be  endless  if  we  did  not 
sleep,  and  the  nights  are  endless,  though  we  do  sleep. 
"We  have  not  spoken  or  seen  a  ship  since,  days  ago, 
we  met  by  arrangement  the  steamer  from  China  to 
San  Francisco,  with  some  one  thousand  two  hundred 
Chinese  on  board,  a  sea  of  heads,  bald  and  pig-tailed, 
going  over  to  try  their  fortunes  in  America.  We 
see  nothing  on  the  Pacific  but  birds,  that  follow  us 
for  our  offal,  or  porpoises,  or  a  whale  or  two.  We 
seem  far  beyond  the  reach  of  commerce,  or  civiliza- 
tion, or  any  of  their  tracks.  ~No  "ship  ahoy"  greets 
us ;  no  smoke  from  the  pipe  of  some  distant  steamer. 
What  an  eternal  waste  of  waters  !  Will  it  ever  end  ? 
We  shall  see. 


Jwne  23. 

Now  over  three  weeks  on  board,  and  we  are 
hoping  to  meet  the  outward-bound  steamer  from 
Yokohama,  and  send  off  letters  to  America  by  her. 
The  fog  is  against  us,  however.  We  are  in  the  Gulf 
Stream,  the  Kuro  Siwo  of  Japan,  and  the  warmer 
water  is  sending  up  fogs  and  rain.  It  is  now  the 
rainy  season  in  Japan,  and  we  shall  be  lucky  if  we 
see  the  coast  before  we  are  right  on  it. 

The  week  we  have  passed  since  I  began  this  sketch- 
ing or  scribbling,  as  you  please  to  call  it,  has  not  been 


38  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

a  week  without  incidents.  We  have  three  mission- 
ary ladies  on  board,  intending  to  pass  some  years  in 
Japan,  instructing  Japanese  children,  to  convert 
them  from  their  heathenism,  if  they  can ;  but  the 
Japs  on  board  give  them  very  little  encouragement. 
These  ladies  are  Mrs.  Pruyn  of  Albany,  Mrs.  Pier- 
son  of  Michigan,  and  Miss  Crosby  of  Poughkeepsie. 
Mrs.  Pruyn  favored  us  with  a  discourse  on  Sunday. 
Discovering  the  capacity  of  these  ladies,  in  a  mock 
trial  we  had  of  a  Teuton  for  stealing  the  sponge  of  a 
Scot,  we  put  two  of  them  on  the  jury  and  made  the 
other  the  official  reporter  of  the  case.  They  dis- 
charged their  duties  so  well  that  we  all  begin  to  think 
better  of  the  16th  Amendment. 

• 

Among  our  Japs  on  board  are  two  returning  from 
Italy,  where  they  have  been  with  silk-worms'  eggs, 
on  cards,  to  sell.  This  has  become  a  great  specula- 
tion, and  the  Japs  are  going  into  it  with  zeal.  The 
Japs  almost  always — always  when,  they  can — take 
cabin  passages  ;  the  Chinese  seldom,  or  never.  We 
have  several  well-off,  if  not  rich,  Chinamen  on  board ; 
but  they  have  preferred  herding  with  their  country- 
men and  living  on  rice  and  pork  to  living  with  us, 
or  with  the  Japanese,  in  the  cabins.  The  Chinese 
are  intensely  economical,  it  seems ;  the  Japanese  far 
less  calculating.  "We  have  also  on  board  four  or  five 
Americans  going  out  to  offer  their  services  to  the 
Emperor  of  China,  as  sailors,  officers,  or  engineers, 
for  their  navy.  One  of  them  already  has  had  com- 
mand of  a  Chinese  gunboat,  and  fought  the  rebels 


ON  THE  PACIFIC.  39 

and  pirates.  Another  was  shipwrecked  in  Corea, 
where  Admiral  Rogers  has  gone  with  our  fleet  to 
admonish  the  Coreans,  and  he  tells  a  terrible  tale  of 
suffering,  inflicted  by  them  and  by  the  Chinese  Tar- 
tars, to  whom  the  Coreans  handed  him  over. 

Thus,  in  our  motley  company  of  the  world's  rep- 
resentatives, we  hear  and  tell  tales,  exchange  or 
"  swap  "  experiences,  and  a  log  might  be  made  up 
of  our  mutual  narratives,  more  interesting,  probably, 
than  any  of  the  books  in  our  ship's  library.  But,  if 
we  are  to  meet  the  California-bound  steamer  off  the 
Japan  coast,  this  yarn  must  be  spun  no  longer,  and 
so  I  bite  off,  and  notch  up  the  thread. 


LETTER  VI. 

FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  IN  JAPAN. 

Arrival  in  Japan. — First  Impressions  on  the  Coast. — The  Fishermen  in  "Georgia 
Costume." — Everything  New,  Everything  Odd. — Bamboo  Baskets  for  Hats. — 
Straw  Overcoats.— Landing  on  the  Hatoba. — The  Cues  of  the  Japanese. — The 
Brawny  Coolies. — Travelling  Restaurants. — Strange  Street  Spectacles. — The  Tat- 
tooed Men.— The  Horse  Boy  (Betto).— Hair  Dressing.— Shocking  Black  Teeth 
of  the  Married  Women. 

YOKOHAMA,  June  26,  1871. 

SOMETHING  new  !  Every  thing  new,  at  last !  Un- 
der your  world  now,  how  every  thing  in  this  world 
seems  up-side  down,  and  down-side  up  !  I  feel  very 
like,  nay,  just  like,  the  Boston  Yankee,  who  first  saw 
Boston,  and  felt  his  rural  ideas  revolving  within  his 
head,  and  I  act  more  like  Ben  Franklin,  the  printer, 
when  he  first  turned  up  in  Philadelphia,  with  both 
eyes  as  open  as  saucers,  munching  his  roll,  staring  at, 
and  astounded  by  every  thing.  Long  and  long  ago, 
after  travelling  over  many  lands,  I  was  sure  I  had 
reached  the  Horatian  nil  admirari — but  I  am  mis- 
taken, for  I  am  wondering  over  every  thing  to-day. 

At  daybreak  on  the  Sabbath  morning  our  good 
ship  bade  good-bye  to  the  pretty-well-behaved  Pa- 
cific, and  turned  a  cape  and  the  light-houses  that 
opened  on  us  the  bay  of  Yedo.  Up  early,  to  see 
and  to  study,  the  first  living  things  to  refresh  our 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  IN  JAPAN.  4-1 

long  ocean-wearied  eyes  were  the  fishermen  of  the 
island  of  Niphon.  Keport  says  (I  have  not  tried  its 
truth)  that  Japan  is  about  the  best  fishing  ground  of 
the  universe.  You  know  (or  if  you  don't,  you  ought), 
that  in  the  Boston  State  House,  over  the  Speaker's 
chair,  is  a  codfish,  the  emblem  of  Massachusetts'  rise, 
progress,  and  prosperity  before  the  days  of  East 
India  ships  and  the  spinning  jenny.  The  fish,  in 
like  manner,  is  reverenced  here  in  Japan.  It  is  a 
basis  of  Japan  life  and  prosperity.  Hence,  I  levelled 
eyes  and  glasses,  as  naturally  man  will,  on  the  first 
life  seen — that  is,  on  the  fishermen.  What  queer 
boats !  What  queer  oars,  or  sculls !  What  queer- 
looking  sails,  of  mats !  Boreas  can  hardly  blow  over 
such  broad-cast  boats.  Nobody  rows — everybody 
sculls ;  and  they  scull  with  one  oar,  two,  three,  four, 
five,  six — as  many  as  need  be  for  the  boat  or  junk — 
and  they  scull  as  fast  as  they  could  row,  in  such 
heavy  and  clumsy  boats.  History  says — wharf-his- 
tory, I  never  read  it  in  books,  but  it  may  be  true— 
that  when  the  Tycoons  and  Daimios  found  the  Jap- 
anese sculling  off,  or  sailing  off,  from  Japan,  they 
ordered  the  better  class  of  Chinese  junks,  that  the 
Japanese  had  been  imitating,  to  be  so  constructed  that 
they  could  never  well  get  over  to  China — aye,  to  be  so 
heavy,  so  clumsy,  that  Neptune,  in  his  roaring  moods, 
would  tip  them  over,  or  roll  them  under,  if  ever  they 
ventured  out  of  sight  of  land.  Hence  the  ugliness  of 
these  junks,  and  ocean-uselessness.  The  June  Califor- 
nia steamer,  out  from  here,  picked  up  the  crew  of  one, 


42  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

three-fourths  of  them  starved  to  death,  because  they 
could  not  find  their  way  only  from  Hiogo  to  Yoko- 
hama, having  been  blown  outside  of  land.  The 
fishermen  we  met,  such  of  them  as  had  seines,  were 
scaring  the  fish  into  them  by  pounding  furiously  on 
the  bottom  of  the  boats!  Can  this  be  done?  I 
charge  nothing  to  the  Cape  Codders  for  letting  them 
into  the  Japanese  secret  of  catching  fish.  But  what 
most  astonished  us  new  comers  was  the  Georgia 
costume,  minus  the  spurs,  of  these  interesting  fisher- 
men !  The  fishermen  were  as  naked  as  the  fish — that 
is,  the  most  of  these  fishermen  !  Some  of  them  had 
something  on,  but  nothing  to  speak  of.  Anatomy 
could  be  studied  practically,  as  well  as  phrenology, 
and  physiognomy,  and  physiology — that  is,  muscu- 
lar and  venous  anatomy.  Some  of  our  passengers, 
at  first,  were  a  little  confused  and  confounded  over 
this  new  development  of  life,  and  dropped  their 
lorgnettes;  but  I  see  the  same  passengers  now  in 
Yokohama  streets,  and  they  are  done  blushing  al- 
ready. 

The  first  day  an  American  spends  in  Europe,  say 
in  England  (I  speak  now  for  myself),  is  a  great  day, 
if  not  the  greatest,  of  his  life.  The  beautifully  green 
fields,  the  hedges,  the  cottages,  etc.,  bewitch  him ; 
but  this  first  day  in  this  Eastern  Asia  does  not 
exactly  bewitch  so  much  as  it  bedevils  a  traveller. 
The  livery  of  a  trading  company's  boatman,  sent  out 
to  escort  home  a  passenger  by  the  steamer — what 
was  it,  think  you  ?  A  little  turban  on  the  head, 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  IN  JAPAN.  4.3 

with  nakedness  to  the  hips,  and  then  a  yellow  sash 
girdle,  over  blue  nankin  trowsers,  running  into  straw 
shoes !  Was  not  this  a  novel  liverj  ?  Can  any  of  the 
grandees  of  Hyde  Park,  or  of  the  Central  Park,  come 
quite  up  to  this  great  swell  ?  Then  numerous  police, 
or  custom-house  boats,  crowded  around  us,  the  most 
of  the  boatmen  with  respectable  clothes  on  (not  all), 
some  with  one  sword,  others,  with  two.  Some  of 
them  had  on  baskets  for  bonnets,  or  hats,  made  of 
straw  or  bamboo ;  others,  with  heads  wrapped  up  in 
handkerchiefs;  others,  with  nothing  on  their  heads 
but  their  cues,  not  pig-tails  of  Chinese  magnificence, 
but  short*  pipe-stem  cues,  on  the  top  of  the  crown. 
A  hundred  boats,  as  usual,  were  clamorous  and 
greedy  for  one  passenger,  and  hundreds  of  hands 
were  ready  to  grab  every  trunk  and  carpet-bag — 
New  York,  as  well  as  Yokohama  life,  you  will  add. 
The  arrival  of  a  Pacific  Mail  steamer  from  California 
is  a  great  event  in  Yokohama,  and  soon  the  ship  was 
full  of  Europeans,  to  see  and  to  study  what  was 
going  on.  One  thing  strange — but  that  must  be 
noted — was  a  large  delegation  of  California  women 
to  welcome  their  forlorn  sisters,  ever  coming  over 
here  upon  desperate  sinful  speculation.  The  men  of 
the  East— the  European  men,  I  mean — far  outnum- 
ber the  women,  and  hence  such  scenes  as  this  I 
describe.  As  we  landed  our  missionary  sisters,  and 
took  in  these  frail  ones,  what  a  pity,  it  seemed  to  me, 
that  Christian  San  Francisco  could  not  be  purified 


44  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

before  this  embassy  was  made  to  the  Buddhists  and 
Sintoos  of  Yokohama ! 

The  Japan  custom-house  officers  are  not  very 
particular  as  to  baggage,  not  even  looking  into  it, 
though  very  peculiar.  They  have  ears,  but  our  lingo 
is  not  theirs,  and  hence  they  profit  in  nothing  there- 
from ;  and  they  have  eyes,  but  they  see  nothing 
custom-house-ward  thereby.  Hence,  we  slip  and 
slide  in,  without  the  least  trouble — but  their  five  per 
cent,  ad  valorem  is  not  the  forty,  and  fifty,  and  one 
hundred  per  cent,  in  our  American  civilization ;  and, 
therefore,  there  is  not  so  much  need  of  our  American 
spying  or  searching.  Soldiers  with  not  very  alarm- 
ing-looking muskets,  save  in  their  sword  bayonets, 
watch  over  "  the  Bund,"  as  they  call  it  here — a  sort 
of  pier  or  wharf.  In  custom-house  tongue  it  might 
be  called  a  gate  or  portcullis.  We  pass  them,  and 
then  began  a  series  of  cryings  or  yellings  that  scare 
fresh-come  European  or  American  horses  half  to 
death,  and  even  frighten  our  passenger  dogs,  and 
would  frighten  us,  if  we  were  not  now  expecting  any 
thing  and  every  thing  new.  "  Yeow,"  "  yeow,"  or 
"yow,"  "yow,"  or  "yew,"  "yew,"  or  something 
like  it  in  the  cat-mewing  line,  are  screaming  whole 
battalions  of  porters,  and  carriers ;  and  men-horses 
are  dragging,  on  miserable  round  plank  wheels,  gran- 
ite, and  timber,  or  lumber.  "  Yeow,"  "yeow,"  goes  up 
to  heaven,  and  rolls  overall  the  earth.  It  is  "yeow," 
"  yeow,"  at  daybreak  in  the  morning,  and  "  yeow," 
all  night,  among  the  coolie  Japs,  loading  and  unloading 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  IN  JAPAN.  4.5 

the  ships  in  the  harbor.  There  is  no  need  of  horses 
(I  have  already  come  to  that  conclusion),  or  elephants, 
where  men  can  carry  such  loads.  When,  years  ago, 
off  Constantinople,  I  first  saw  men  turned  into  horses, 
I  thought  that  was  something  wonderful ;  but  these 
one-horse  Japs,  with  their  enormous  loads,  shame  the 
Turks,  the  Grand  Turks,  even.  What  glorious  mus- 
cular legs  they  have,  so  admirably  developed  !  I  wish 
I  had  a  pair  of  them  to  trot  over  the  world  with. 
What  brawny  arms,  pointed  off,  though,  with  little 
hands !  Gymnast  or  boxer  would  have  to  stand  back 
in  "  a  primary,"  where  a  fellow  had  such  props,  or 
such  pointers.  There,  comes  a  travelling  restaurant ! 
That's  the  way  to  live,  where  your  dinner  comes  on 
a  fellow's  shoulders  to  you,  a  whole  score  of  you,  and 
where  you  do  not  have  to  go  to  the  dinner — where 
rice  and  chop-sticks,  and  fish,  raw  fish,  too,  are  all 
ready  for  you — where  you  can  squat  down  on  a  mat, 
and  have  a  Delmonico  treat  for  only  a  few  "  cash," 
that  is  two,  or  three,  or  four  "  Tempos  " — not  five 
cents,  even — none  of  your  five-dollar  "  Delmonico's  ! " 
There's  life,  there's  happiness,  there's  economy.  True, 
it  rains  ;  but  has  not  the  fellow  a  basket-hat  on,  that 
sheds  all  rain  as  well  as  all  sun  ? — not  a  mere  para- 
pluie,  a  rain-shedder,  as  the  French  call  it,  but  an 
umbrella,  or  ombrella,  too,  in  Latina  lingua.  And 
has  he  not  brought  out,  too,  to  shed  the  rain,  a  great 
straw  cloak,  or  mantilla,  that  covers  all  but  his  legs, 
and  his  one-story  mounted  shoes,  or  pattens,  tied  on 
by  a  rope  of  braided  straw  ?  If  it  were  not  for  the 


46  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

looks  of  the  thing,  among  the  Yankee  and  English 
aristocracy  of  Yokohama,  I  would  squat  down  and 
try  the  rice  (not  the  raw  fish)  of  that  dinner.  If  one 
could  only  learn  to  squat  like  a  Jap,  one  never  would 
again  use  a  chair,  or  a  sofa.  The  fact  is,  in  many 
things,  "  civilization,"  as  it  is  called,  is  a  humbug. 
Squatting  on  a  clean  mat,  if  you  have  only  been 
brought  up  to  do  it,  I  am  sure,  from  what  I  see  here, 
is  easier  and  preferable  to  sitting  in  a  chair.  The 
muscles  of  the  legs  have  only  to  be  trained  from 
babyhood  up,  and  a  chair  becomes  as  much  of  a  nui- 
sance as  now  is  to  us  this  mat.  See  how  nicely  our 
children  squat,  or  young  ladies,  even,  who  will  sew 
or  write  in  bed,  or  on  the  floor,  and  by  hours,  too, 
without  a  groan.  Hence,  I  reason,  some  of  our 
civilization  may  be  a  humbug,  if  not  much  of  it. 
There,  are  a  lot  of  tumble  boys,  funny  fellows,  with 
caps  on  their  heads,  stuck  with  red  and  black  feathers, 
looking  like  roosters'  combs,  who  roll  up,  and  roll 
over,  like  balls  of  dirt,  and  then  roll  all  together.  .  . 
They  want  only  "  a  cash,"  a  tenth  part  of  a  cent,  thus 
to  tumble,  over  and  over.  "  All-Eight,"  in  the  Amer- 
ican-Japanese jugglers'  corps,  was  thus  trained  in  a 
Japan  street,  and  graduated  in  that  school.  There, 
is  a  mother  with  a  baby  on  her  back,  slung  d  la 
American  Indian  papoose,  and  the  poor  baby  is  fast 
asleep,  with  its  head  toppling  all  about.  The  mother, 
perhaps,  would  not  have  much,  if  any,  clothes  on,  if 
it  had  not  been  necessary  for  her  to  throw  over  her 
the  sack  for  the  baby  to  sleep  or  live  in.  There,  is  a 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  IN  JAPAN.  4.7 

carpenter,  pulling  his  ibreplane  toward  him,  not 
pushing  from  him,  beautifully  clad — exquisitely,  I 
may  add.  No  French  modiste  even  could  have 
clothed  him  richer,  with  a  livery  on,  that  no  French 
high  chamberlain  could  devise  better ;  but  the  poor 
devil's  only  clothes,  save  a  cotton  scroll  about  his 
loins,  and  his  straw  shoes,  were  his  skin,  tattooed 
with  all  sorts  of  tortoises,  storks,  and  other  Jap  di- 
vinities. It  cost  only  three  and  a  half  dollars,  that 
livery,  they  tell  me,  and  it  is  the  pride  and  glory  of  a 
true  Jap  to  have  it.  You  could  not  buy  a  hat  in 
New  York  for  that,  you  know.  But  to  earn  the 
three  dollars  and  a  half  to  get  the  livery,  that's  the 
difficulty.  That  surplus  is  a  year's  saving ;  and  if  it 
were  not  so,  all  Japanese  of  the  working  classes 
would  have  on  the  livery.  There,  is  a  wrestler,  a 
big,  burly  fellow,  the  picked  man  of  his  clan,  who 
was  big  enough  to  pass  for  a  European.  Wrestling 
here  is  of  a  quasi  noble  profession  ...  It  entitles 
&  man  to  have  two  swords  on,  and  to  look  down  on 
common  fellows.  An  actor  in  Japan  is  nothing — no- 
body— ranking  only  with  beggars,  while  the  wrestler 
is  a  grand  cockalorum.  An  actor  has  no  rank,  no 
honors,  and  everybody  looks  down  upon  his  (with 
us)  great  profession,  and  the  only  social  difference 
between  him  and  the  beggar  is,  that  he  may  rise — 
the  beggar  never.  The  beggar,  by  the  way,  be- 
queaths the  profession  from  sire  to  son.  The  boy 
must  follow  the  trade  of  the  father.  There  is  no 
hope,  no  future  for  him.  Not  even  the  coolie  will 


48  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

work  in  the  same  gang  with  him.  Put  a  beggar  to 
work  in  a  coolie  gang,  and  every  coolie  "  strikes  "  at 
once,  refusing  thus  to  associate  with  a  beggar.  When 
the  beggar  sees  you  coming,  he  prostrates  himself  on 
his  knees,  then  falls  upon  the  ground,  and  holds  up 
his  hand  only  for  "  cash."  He  utters  a  most  woebe- 
gone cry  to  touch  your  heart,  and  to  win  your  sym- 
pathies. There,  comes  something  with  two  swords 
on,  pony-mounted,  and  his  Betto.  The  betto  is  a  boy 
who  follows  his  lordship's  pony,  and  the  pony  races, 
and  the  betto  races.  Which  will  beat,  ask  you? 
The  pony  never.  The  betto  has  on  his  tattoo  livery- 
straw  shoes,  it%may  be, — no  shoes,  perhaps.  The 
betto  will  keep  up  with  that  pony  day  after  day, 
thirty  miles  a  day,  and  no  pony  can  overdo  that  on 
a  journey.  This  betto  takes  care  of  the  pony,  watches 
over  and  feeds  him,  and  helps  to  take  care  of  his 
master,  too.  There,  is  hair-dressing  going  on — public 
hair-dressing — on  the  front  steps  of  the  shop  or 
house — one  man  dressing  another  man's  hair,  and 
doing  up  his  cue.  The  women  dress  their  hair  in  our 
old  mothers'  fashion  of  gone-by  times  (none  of  your 
long  tails  of  false  hair,  said  I,  dangling  behind,  with 
a  skewer  to  hold  it  up  on  top  of  the  head),  beautiful, 
glossy,  black  hair.  "  Thank  the  Lord,"  said  I,  to  a 
Yokohama  American  lady,  u  we  have  reached  a 
country  at  last,  where  the  women  wear  only  their  own 
hair."  "  You  are  much  mistaken,"  said  she,  "  all 
that  hair  on  top  of  Madame  Jap's  head  is  false  hair." 
Madame  shaves  off,  or  cuts  off,  the  original  crown,  and 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  IN  JAPAN.  49 

piles  on  the  false  hair.  Once  a  week,  only,  is  the 
hair  done  up,  skewered,  and  glued,  Spanish  (Cadiz) 
style,  thus  defying  the  winds  and  the  fogs  for  a  whole 
week,  and  kept  in  place,  nights,  while  sleeping  on 
the  mat-bed,  with  a  wooden  pillow  under  the  nape 
of  the  neck.  Woman,  thus,  you  see,  is  woman  every- 
where. There  is  nothing  true  outside  of  their  heads, 
though  all  so  true  and  sweet,  inside.  These  black 
teeth,  too,  of  these  Japanese  Madames,  are  they  not 
terrible  ?  How  can  husbands  ever  kiss  such  black- 
teethed  wives  ?  When  a  woman  is  married  here,  she 
blackens  her  teeth,  while  our  wives  and  daughters, 
when  married,  put  on,  not  only  a  marriage  ring,  but 
all  the  other  rings  they  can  get.  Such  is  fashion. 
But  what  more  sense  in  the  rings,  and  ear-rings  and 
bracelets,  these  emblems  of  vassalage — I  dare  not 
write  handcuffs— than  in  these  black  teeth  ?  Never- 
theless, the  black  teeth  are  beautiful  black  teeth, 
molars,  and  eye-teeth  of  the  first  chop.  They  put  on 
some  white  preparation  that  turns  them  black,  and 
they  renew  the  operation  about  every  week.  These 
Jap  women  only  miss,  many  of  them,  being  very, 
very  pretty.  When  their  copper  color  is  whitened 
up,  they  would  pass  for  brunettes,  even  in  America. 
But — if  they  are  married — these  abominable  black 
teeth !  this  boca  negra  !  But  fashion  is  every  thing. 
The  hoops  of  our  ladies  (although  not  of  half  the  am- 
plitude they  once  were),  their  long  queues,  the  sub- 
stitutes for  what  ought  to  be  bonnets,  their  flowing 
ringlets  (whence  come,  or  how  once  worn,  quien 


50  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

sdbe  ?) — their  corsets,  their  shoes,  their  heels,  etc., 
astound  the  poor  natives  as  much  as  these  black  teeth 
astound  us.  The  young  Japs,  however,  see  in  the 
mouths  of  their  fair  ones,  the  most  tempting  teeth — 
and  no  mouths  are  prettier. 

But  hold  up.  I  am  scribbling  of  fashion,  and 
running  into  the  moralities  thereon,  and  revelling  in 
my  first  day's  frolic  in  Japland.  My  head  is  so  run- 
ning over  with  novelties  and  curiosities  that,  unless 
I  retrace  here,  and  write  of  the  past,  all  THAT  will  be 
forgotten  in  the  exciting  present  and  the  teeming 
future. 

Was  it  not  wonderful,  meeting  in  mid-ocean  two 
big  steamers,  at  the  exact  place,  and  about  the  exact 
time  appointed  2  You  have,  or  ought  to  have  had, 
two  letters  from  me,  both  written  on,  and  mailed  on, 
the  broad  Pacific !  The  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Co. 
try  so  to  arrange  time  and  place  that  their  steamers 
meet  twice  on  the  sea,  and  exchange  letters,  and 
news,  and  compliments.  Pity  there  are  not  some 
islands  in  the  way,  for  coal,  for  provisions,  etc.,  as 
well  as  for  letters,  but  there  are  not,  and  so  we  have 
to  make  islands  of  the  floating  ships,  and  make  ex- 
changes on  board  of  them.  No  spectacle  can  be 
more  striking,  more  impressive  of  the  power  of  man 
over  the  elements,  than  these  mid-ocean  meetings. 
The  sea  of  heads,  shaven  Chinese  heads,  one  thousand 
two  hundred  of  them  in  one  steamer,  filling  the 
whole  fore-deck,  I  have  already  noticed.  We  find 
out  what  passengers  are  going  to  America,  and  they 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  IN  JAPAN.  51 

who  are  coming  from.  We  bring  them  news  from 
America,  and  they,  thus  for  the  first  time,  on  June 
20th,  brought  us  news  from  Paris  to  June  9th,  by 
telegraph  from  Paris  to  Shanghae,  and  thence  by 
steam.  This  exciting  news,  nine  days  later  than  we 
had  at  San  Francisco,  was  devoured  with  zeal.  So 
you  see  I  have  not  quite  realized  one  great  aim  of  my 
visit — that  of  a  repose  beyond  all  the  reach  of  steam 
or  telegraph. 

Nor  have  I  dwelt  upon  the  beautiful  and  extraor- 
dinary scenery  that  first  met  our  eyes  when  entering 
the  Bay  of  Yedo,  the  ever-green  fields,  the  ever- 
green hills,  with  vegetation  all  alive  from  summit 
to  base,  often  terraced,  and  ever  beautiful.  This 
Niphon  (Japan)  island  is  the  Isle  of  Wight  of  this 
land  of  the  rising  sun.  Daimios,  richer  than  English 
nobles,  with  hundreds  and  hundreds,  nay  thousands, 
of  retainers,  preside  and  rule  over  this  wonderful 
land. 

There  are  no  people,  only  millions  and  millions 
of  human  beings  that  we  at  home  call  people.  No 
Maine  Yankee,  on  first  entering  into  the  Hub  of  the 
Universe  (Boston),  ever  stared  more  than  I  do, 
"  pumped  "  more  than  I  do,  or  is  learning  more  than 
I  am.  If  you  think  these  rapid,  racing,  fly-on,  fly- 
away scribblings  of  mine  worth  print,  print  away.  I 
have  not  a  moment  for  revision,  nor  book-making, 
not  even  for  corresponding.  I  am  jotting  down  only 
in  my  note-book,  and  sending  it  to  you,  hereafter  to 
read  it  myself. 


LETTEE  VII. 

THE  CITY  OF  TEDO. 

The  First  Day  in  Yedo.— The  Hide  on  the  "  Tocaido."— Strange  Sights  there.— Tho 
Pretty  Tea  Girls.— The  Tiny  Tea  Cups.— Kooms  with  Paper  Partitions.— The 
Beggars. — The  Gln-rick-a  Sha. — Eide  in  State  along  the  "  Tocaido." — Hogs  in 
Baskets. — No  Tycoon,  only  a  "  Mikado." — How  we  Stare  and  how  they  Stare  at 
us. — Great  Fire  in  Yedo. 

YEDO,  June  29,  1871. 

I  NEVER  in  my  life  worked  so  hard  in  one  day, 
saw  half  as  much,  or  learned  half  as  much.  Well,  in 
this  wilderness  of  men  and  things  where  shall  I 
begin,  or  rather  where  shall  I  end  ?  Don't  talk  to  me 
any  more  of  Broadway  and  its  people,  of  the  Strand 
in  London,  or  the  Boulevards  of  Paris !  There  is 
one  long  eternal  street  from  Yokohama  to  Yedo, 
twenty-four  miles  long ;  not  lit  by  gas,  to  be  sure ; 
not  filled  with  palaces,  certainly ;  not  a  hundred 
houses  on  it  being  two  stories  high,  for  fear  earth- 
quakes will  topple  them  over ;  not  paved  with  cobble- 
stones or  wood,  but  admirably  macadamized — the 
Tocaido  they  call  this  long  street,  the  Broadway  of 
Japan,  but  not  broader  than  Pine  street,  New  York ; 
rather  the  Appian  Way  of  the  Romans,  for  it  runs 
the  whole  length  of  the  island  of  Niphon,  and  is  the 
royal  road  for  every  Jap  to  go  from,  and  over,  in  the 
empire.  The  American  Minister,  Mr.  De  Long, 


TUB   CITY   OF  YEDO.  53 

honored  my  party  by  his  presence,  in  his  own  car- 
riage, over  this  Tocaido.  Guards  of  the  empire,  to 
save  us  from  saki  (the  whiskey  of  Japan),  and  the 
two-sworded  rascals  that  get  drunk  on  that  saki, 
and  whip  off  a  head  in  a  twinkle,  escorted  us  on 
horseback,  with  stick  and  lantern,  and  yelled  "  hi  !  " 
"  hi  !  "  "  hi  '!  "  to  every  poor  Jap  that  did  not  scat- 
ter as  the  American  lightning  was  coming.  I  had 
been  reading  and  re-reading  the  two  volumes  of  Sir 
Rutherford  Alcock,  the  first  British  minister  here 
(then  with  Townsend  Harris,  Esq.,  now  of  New 
York),  and  Sir  Eutherford  had  so  filled  my  head  with 
bloody  visions  of  Yedo,  that  I  began  to  consider 
myself  lucky  if  I  could  only  get  to,  and  from  Yedo, 
and  back,  with  my  head  under  my  arm.  That  "  hi," 
"hi,"  "hi,"  and  the  consequent  scattering — that 
"  hi,"  "  hi,"  "  hi,"  I  say,  from  Yaconin  guardsmen 
and  screaming  "  betto  "  (the  boy  that  ran  on  foot  by 
the  carriage)  has  done  the  business  for  us,  and  my 
head  is  in  its  usual  place,  and  likely  to  be,  for  all  I 
can  yet  see  in  Yedo. 

All  Yedo  seems  to  be  moving  down  the  Tocaido 
to  Yokohama,  and  hence  the  long  populousness  of 
that  Tocaido.  Where  gold  glitters,  there  goes  Jap, 
and  though  gold  does  not  exactly  glitter  in  Yoko- 
hama— only  paper — paper  itzibus  (boos  we  shorten 
the  word  into),  paper  oriental  English  bank  notes,  and 
paper  Japan  rios  (the  dollar) — yet  the  paper  is  glit- 
tering enough  to  tempt  the  trading  Jap  down  from 
Yedo  to  the  foreign  capital  of  Yokohama.  A  swamp 


54:  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

there  only  ten  or  twelve  years  ago  is  now  a  city  of  over 
seventy  thousand  people,  and  it  is  growing  (in  Japs) 
so  fast  that  even  Jap  houses,  which  don't  cost  much, 
cannot  be  built  up  fast  enough  to  hold  Japs  needing 
them.  "We  Americans,  or  Englishmen,  rather,  have 
sacked  Japan  of  its  golden  kobans  (coin)  and  golden 
itzibus,  and  we  have  compelled  the  Government  to 
substitute  paper  therefor.  When  Com.  Perry  first 
landed  here,  in  1853,  all  was  gold,  gold,  gold ;  now 
all  is  paper,  paper,  paper,  save  a  stray  Mexican  dol- 
lar, which  has  a  running  value  of  about  eight  cents 
beyond  the  paper.  Business  stretches  out  from  Tedo 
to  run  where  commerce  is,  and  where  teas,  silks,  and 
bronzed  copper,  and  lacquer  ware  go — and  in  twenty 
years  more  a  fourth  of  Yedo  will  be  on  the  swamps 
of  Kanagawa  and  Yokohama. 

"What  I  saw  on  this  Tocaido  a  good  New  York 
fancy  reporter  could  make  a  thousand  columns  of, 
with  pictures  added  on  to  make  a  thousand  more ; 
but  a  man  does  not  see  much  when  riding  backward 
in  an  American  Minister's  carriage,  in  the  hi,  hi,  hi 
style  we  were  going,  with  guardsmen  and  betto.  All 
the  way,  more  or  less,  are  planted  pleasant  tea- 
houses  We  "  tea  "  here,  when  we  must 

stop  by  the  wayside,  and  in  such  little  bits  of  cups 
that  I  could  drink  the  content  of  twenty  of  them 
and  then  want  more.  Pretty  tea  girls  stand  by  the 
entrance,  and  (their  teeth  not  yet  blackened)  with 
ways  so  pretty,  and  courtesies  so  fascinating  that  tea, 
even  without  sugar  or  milk,  becomes  agreeable.  Tea- 


THE  CITY  OF  YEDO.  55 

houses  are  the  grogshops  of  Japan.  Our  pretty 
lacquered  waiters,  the  tea  girls,  hand  you  little  tiny 
cups,  with  a  mouthful  in  them,  and  you  squat  down 
on  the  nice,  clean  mats,  if  squat  you  can  (I  have  to 
stretch  out  at  length,  and  fill  up  half  a  tea  room), 
and  you  sip,  and  sip,  and  sip,  this  mouthful  of  hot 
tea,  as  if  the  gods'  nectar  was  going  down  your 
throat  in  infinitesimal  drops  of  microscopic  invisibil- 
ity. Tea,  like  sleep,  is  a  great  invention.  There's 
Bass'  beer,  all  the  way  from  London,  stuck  up  in  the 
corner  of  the  tea-house  shop,  for  beer-drinking,  trav- 
elling Englishmen ;  but  what's  Bass'  beer  to  tea,  if 
you  only  can  get  enough  of  it,  this  hot  weather  with 
the  thermometer  over  ninety  ?  A  Japan  tea-house 
keeper  picks  out  as  pretty  a  place  for  the  tea-house 
as  he  or  she  (the  keeper)  can  get.  The  keeper  covets, 
if  possible,  a  view  of,  and  the  air  of,  the  Bay  of 
Yedo,  along  which,  most  of  the  way  here,  runs  the 
Tocaido.  The  grand  tea-house  is  cut  up  into  numer- 
ous little  rooms,  with  paper  partitions  between  to 
part  them,  running  on  slides,  but  all  removable  at 
will,  to  restore  the  whole  to  one  grand  room.  Cakes, 
sweetmeats,  and  candies  are  brought  in  with  the  tea, 
all  put  on  the  clean-matted  floor  (there  are  no  seats), 
and  we  all  squat  or  stretch  out  on  that  floor.  It  is 
stifling  hot  in  these  tea-houses  just  now,  and  a  stretch 
out  is  a  great  relief  to  the  traveler. 

There  is  a  river  (the  Logo)  half-way  up  to  Yedo, 
which  we  "  pole  "  over  on  a  flat-boat — horses  on  one 
boat,  and  we  and  the  carriage  on  another.  Beggars 


56  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

by  the  score  beset  us  there.  "  Give  us  a  Tempo  " 
(one  cent  only),  all  pray,  in  the  politest  tones  imagin- 
able, with  bows  as  graceful  as  if  court-trained  there- 
for. The  lame,  the  halt,  the  blind,  the  idiotic,  are 
there,  and  not  only  they,  but  people  well  enough  look- 
ing to  work.  Beggars  in  Yedo  proper  have  not  yet 
met  my  eyes.  The  Government,  I  am  told,  particu- 
larly discourages  begging  there,  and  sends  off  the 
beggars  that  can  work  to  work  in  the  mines.  One 
reason,  probably,  why  the  Government  has  put  the 
ban  on  the  beggars,  I  have  written  of  before,  is,  that 
it  wishes  to  discourage  and  break  up  the  trade ;  but 
how  can  it  be  broken  up,  if  even  the  poverty-stricken 
coolies,  with  no  clothes  on,  will  not  work  with  the 
beggars?  These  beggars  are  the  seventh  class  in 
Japan,  ranking  with  actors,  as  I  have  written  you ; 
but  there  is  a  class  below  even  these,  the  eighth  and 
lowest  (save  one,  the  prostitutes),  viz.,  the  tanners, 
shoemakers,  leather  workers,  skinners,  etc.  The 
Japs  have  no  mutton  (sheep  die  if  they  eat  the  grass 
here),  but  little  beef,  and  that,  before  Perry  came, 
not  for  food;  and  there  is  such  a  prejudice  against 
those  whose  trade  is  to  take  life,  or  who  are  con- 
nected therewith,  that  it  thus  breaks  out  even  against 
the  shoemakers  and  leather  workers.  The  pre- 
judice, however,  is  so  unnatural  and  unreasonable, 
that  the  tanners  and  their  clan  are  petitioning  hard 
to  be  relieved  from  the  ban,  and  the  Government 
•will  put  them  on  an  equality  with  other  people  as 


THE   CITY  OF   YEDO.  57- 

soon  as  the  vox  popiili^  that  is,  Tom,  Dick,  and 
Harry,  will  permit. 

But,  stop  essaying.  Get  on  to  Yedo,  the  great 
city  of  the  now  extinct  Tycoon — the  city  said  to 
have  two  million  human  beings  in  it.  On !  on  ! 
But  the  Gin-rick-a  Shas  are  in  the  way.  What  do 
you  suppose  is  a  Gin-ricTc-a  Sha  ?  Most  people  that 
ride  here,  ride,  first,  on  Japanese  ponies — a  vicious, 
wicked  little  rascal  (so  say  the  Yankees  here),  that 
bites,  and  kicks,  and  flares  up ;  next,  they  are  carried 
in  norimons  (quality  riding  this  is)  by  two  coolies,  in 
a  sedan-covered  chair;  and  next,  in  a  cango,  also 
carried  by  two  coolies,  on  a  pole  over  the  coolies' 
shoulders — Satan's  own  invention  for  crooking  up 
and  cramping  your  legs,  and  making  you  miserable 
as  you  ride.  Some  Yedo  genius  lately,  with  no  rev- 
erence for  the  customs  of  his  great  ancestors,  has  in- 
vented a  Gin-flck-a  Sha,  which  is  a  one-horse  coolie 
carriage,  a  covered  cart  on  springs,  that  one  coolie 
can  easily  pull,  and,  therefore,  infinitely  better  than 
the  norimon,  or  cango,  that  two  coolies  must  work. 
Thanks  to  that  Yedo  genius,  you  can  go  through  the 
streets  of  Yedo  now  without  being  hived  up  in  a 
norimon,  or  crooked  and  cramped  in  a  cango.  The 
progress  of  the  age  has  got  up,  and  got  into  Yedo, 
and  I  have  hopes  of  a  country  that  can  invent  a  Gin- 
rick-a  Sha.  During  the  past  year,  in  Yedo  alone, 
they  have  made,  numbered,  and  registered  twenty- 
five  thousand  of  these  Gin-rick-a  Shas,  and  each  one 

pays  an  annual  tax  of  three  dollars. 
4 


58  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

On,  on,  on  to  Yedo !  Well,  as  fast  as  possible. 
There's  a  team  of  coolies  that  block  the  way  with  a 
stick  of  timber  two  feet  wide,  or  more,  and  twenty  or 
thirty  feet  long,  perhaps  more.  The  coolies  are 
stuck,  but  we  raised  our  "hi,"  "hi,"  "hi,"  and  the 
stick  of  timber  cleared  out  for  us.  Coolies  are  both 
bullocks  and  horses  here,  and  cheaper,  too,  for  they 
only  eat  rice  and  fish,  and  not  much  of  these,  where- 
as horses  and  bullocks  want  ten  times  as  much  pro- 
vender. Now,  there,  just  as  I  am  going  on,  is  a 
drove  of  hogs  in  the  way.  A  speculation  in  hogs  is 
going  on,  just  now,  among  the  Japs  who  have  seen 
China.  The  live  hog  market  has  been  going  up  and 
down,  just  like  stocks  in  the  "Wall  Street  market, 
and  hogs  here  have  their  "bears"  and  "bulls," 
just  as  other  stock,  or  stocks,  have  them.  A  sow 
and  a  litter  of  pigs,  a  little  while  gone  by,  sold  as 
high  as  one  thousand  five  hundred  dollars,  but  now 
the  bears  have  their  way,  and  they  have  ruined  the 
bulls  in  hogs.  But  they  don't  drive  hogs  here,  on 
the  Tocaido,  as  we  do  in  America.  When  hogs  are 
recalcitrant,  as  in  America,  they  do  not  here  turn 
tail  where  head  ought  to  be,  and  drive  them  back- 
ward, but  in  mercy  for  the  dear  hog,  they  tenderly 
put  him  in  a  basket,  and  sling  the  basket  on  a  pole 
over  two  coolies'  shoulders,  and  in  this  way  Japs 
drive  hogs  to  the  Tedo  market,  the  hogs  are  cleared, 
and  I  am  in  Yedo  ! 

And  this  is  Yedo,  and  I  am  in  Yedo ;  but  alas, 
there  is  no  Tycoon.  The  Tycoon  has  been  tipped 


THE   CITY   OF  YEDO.  59 

over,  and  tipped  off  his  throne,  since  Commodore 
Perry's  awful  interview  with  his  understrappers,  and 
since  Townsend  Harris's  great  treaty.  Kings,  em- 
perors, czars,  kaisers,  shahs,  and  others  of  the  various 
big  guns,  are  something ;  but  the  great  Tycoon,  and 
the  city  of  the  great  Tycoon,  have  been  my  embodi- 
ments of  grandeur  and  glory  ever  since  I  heard  of 
Marco  Polo,  the  first  great  Eastern  traveller,  and 
read  the  wonderful  narratives  of  the  great  Dutch- 
men, from  Holland,  who  made  their  first  lodgment 
here,  centuries  ago.  And  there  is  no  Tycoon  now  ! 
There,  are  only  the  tombs  of  the  great  Tycoons — the 
Westminster  Abbey  of  Japan — and  that  is  all  I  can 
see !  The  Mikado  has  upset  the  Tycoon  !  There 
was  a  rebellion  here,  two  or  three  years  ago,  and  the 
spiritual,  heaven-born,  but  hitherto  powerless,  Mika- 
do turned  up  king,  or  emperor,  and  the  poor  Ty- 
coon, and  the  old  government  of  Tycoon,  went  under. 
They  chopped  off  many  heads,  hung  many  up  to  dry, 
before  all  this  happened ;  but  the  now  unwarlike  Ty- 
coon, unlike  his  great  ancestors,  who  robbed  power 
from  the  Mikado  by  the  sword  in  years  gone  by, 
gave  up,  disinclined  longer  to  fight  the  gods'  an- 
ointed, the  spirit-born  Mikado,  and  hence,  while  the 
Mikado  lives  in  Yedo,  the  Tycoon  has  gone  home  to 
his  estate  in  the  country,  to  raise  rice,  catch  fish, 
hunt  falcons,  or  to  enjoy  other  like  rural  and  peace- 
ful sports  in  his  own  castle,  on  the  estates  born  to 
him.  The  Mikado  is  not  visible  to  mortals,  unless 
they  wear  straps.  The  American  Minister  has 


CO  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

coaxed  the  Ministry  up  to  letting  him  be  seen  by 
soldiers  and  sailors  in  straps,  and  by  officials  in  the 
ambassadorial  retinue ;  but  alas,  I  have  no  straps, 
and  these  eyes  of  mine  will  never  light  upon  the 
divine  Mikado.  I  shall  never  see  him,  unless  both 
he  and  I  go  to  heaven  together,  and  then  he  will  be 
so  high  on  the  upper  seats  that  mortal-born  can 
never  get  near  him.  "  In  heaven  there  is  one  sun, 
on  earth  there  is  one  Mikado,"  is  a  Confucian  saying, 
in  accordance  with  the  idea  of  the  country.  But, 
nevertheless,  say  the  middies,  who  have  seen  him,  he 
is  a  big,  fat  boy,  only  wonderful  for  being  a  Mikado. 
Yedo  is,  say,  a  fresh-born  city  in  Montana  or 
Wyoming,  on  the  Pacific  Railroad,  say  a  city  of 
pine  boards,  bamboo,  thatched  huts,  one  story  high, 
seldom  over  that,  though  occasionally  with  two 
stories  on — the  upper  mounted  sometimes  by  a  lad- 
der, and  sometimes  by  steps  almost  perpendicular, 
kept  so  clean  and  well  polished  as  to  be  almost  as 
slippery  as  ice.  But  don't  misunderstand  me.  Yedo 
is  at  least  two  thousand  years  old.  The  pine  boards 
are  beautifully  planed  by  some  of  the  best  carpenters 
in  the  world.  The  bamboos  are  the  slide  doors  with 
paper  windows,  and  the  roofs  are  prettily  thatched,  if 
not  covered,  as  most  of  them  are,  with  tiles.  The 
floors  are  all  covered  with  beautiful  mats.  The  walls 
are  often  lined  with  artistic  drawings,  and  paintings, 
and  sketches,  that  indicate  a  high  degree  of  refine- 
ment. The  windows  are  of  paper ;  the  outer  shutters 
and  doors  of  bamboo.  They  are  lit  at  night  by 


THE  CITY  OF  YEDO.  61 

tapers  of  vegetable  wax,  with  paper  wicks,  to  flare 
well  when  the  wind  blows.  Hence  the  universal  use 
of  lanterns  to  protect  them  from  the  winds.  There 
is  no  neatness  in  the  world  like  that  in  these  wooden 
houses,  not  even  among  the  Dutch  in  Amsterdam,  or 
Rotterdam,  or  Schiedam,  or  any  other  Dutch  dam. 
They  shiver  all  over  when  foreigners'  rough  shoes 
tramp  on  their  nice,  spotless  mats.  They  never  thus 
tread  on  them,  themselves,  never ;  they  always  take 
off  their  shoes  and  leave  them  at  the  door,  while  we 
ramble  and  scamper,  to  their  terror,  over  mats  they 
sleep  on — soft  and  nice  beds  they  are,  but  plague 
on  the  wooden  pillow.  "We  look,  peep,  and  spy  into, 
and  feel  of,  every  thing,  and  they  laugh  at  our  curios- 
ity ;  while  they  look,  peep,  and  spy  into  every  thing 
of  ours,  more  especially  into  our  ladies'  habiliments. 
Long  ringlets  astonish  them  more  than  their  skew- 
ered-up,  sticky,  waxed  hair  does  us.  They  peep  into 
our  carpet-bags,  as  we  peep  into  their  closets,  and 
they  dance  about,  and  jump,  and  wriggle  before  a 
mirror  they  take  out,  as  we  do  before  their  curiosities. 
Hoop-petticoats  astound  them  more  than  straw  shoes 
and  naked  ankles  do  us.  Every  fashion,  you  thus 
see,  that  is  not  our  fashion,  is  funny  to  us,  and  vice 
versa. 

And,  by  the  way,  shoes  are  of  many,  many  fash- 
ions here,  as  well  as  hats.  The  horse,  the  pony,  the 
working  bullock  are  straw  shod.  The  working  man 
and  woman  are  straw  shod.  Nor  are  straw  shoes  so 
very  ridiculous  as  the  word  straw  would  seem  to 


62  X  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

import.  A  straw-bottomed  shoe,  fastened  over  the 
big  toe,  with  straw  straps  around  the  ankle,  is  not  a 
shoe  to  be  laughed  at  in  hot  weather.  I  wish  I  could 
wear  a  pair,  in  lieu  of  my  leather  boots,  this  hot  day. 
The  straw  shoes  of  the  horses  and  bullocks  seem 
stronger — but  they  are  cheap,  cost  only  a  cent, 
everywhere  to  be  had ;  and  when  worn  out  can  be 
refurnished.  They  wear,  however,  a  good  while. 
The  swell  Japs  are  imitating  the  foreigners,  and  put- 
ting iron  shoes  on  their  horses ;  but  the  great  body 
of  the  people  stick  to  the  straw.  There  are  other 
men  and  women's  shoes,  some  cost  three  cents,  £ome 
six ;  the  high  officials  wearing  blue  cloth  or  silk  as  a 
cover  to  the  foot,  and  the  shoe  of  the  country 
underneath.  There  is  a  very  nice  shoe  made  all  of 
wood — two-story  shoes,  I  may  call  them,  on  two 
props,  which  go  clatter,  clatter,  clatter,  but  keep  the 
feet  nice  and  clean.  All  shoes  are  put  off  as  the 
house  is  entered,  and  thus  everywhere,  are  clean  mats 
and  clean  rooms. 

They  burnt  down  three  hundred  houses  last  night 
(in  honor  of  our  arrival  ?  I  don't  write  that) — only 
three  hundred !  But  three  hundred  houses  on  fire  is 
not  much  of  a  fire  for  Yedo.  The  houses  do  not  cost 
much — only  one  hundred,  two  hundred,  or  three 
hundred  dollars  (this  is  my  guess,  only) — and  all  the 
fittings  and  furniture  can  be  carried  off,  with  screens, 
and  mats,  and  paper  sliding  partitions,  and  pots  and 
kettles,  by  two  coolies,  as  the  fire  comes  along.  I 
ffin-ric7c-a  slidd  by  the  ruins  this  morning,  and  while 


THE   CITY  OF  YEDO.  63 

in  one  place  tne  firemen  (they  have  them  here) 
were  sputtering  water  from  a  poor  steam-engine 
(they  have  them  too,  now,  poor  ones)  in  other  places 
the  workmen  were  carrying  off  the  ruins,  prepa'ratory 
to  the  erection  of  new  dwellings,  which,  I  am  told, 
will  all  be  up  in  a  week.  Houses  that  have  to  stand 
earthquakes  are  quickly  morticed,  not  nailed  up. 
Nothing  is  so  fastened  as  not  to  stand  an  earthquake 
shake  without  toppling  down.  When  the  steam- 
engine  and  the  fire  are  having  a  fight  to  see  which 
beats,  it  is  not  uncommon,  I  am  told,  to  see  some 
poor  believer  offering  up  bits  of  paper  scrolls  to  the 
god  of  fire,  as  a  sacrifice  to  tempt  the  wicked  demon 
to  stop  his  flame  spoutings. 


LETTEE  YIII. 

LIFE  AND  SIGHTS  IN  TEDO. 

Sintoo  and  Buddhist  Temples. — The  Priests. — The  Sacred  Cream-Colored  Horses. — 
Theatres  in  the  Temples. — The  Opera  in  Yedo. — Funny  Hide  thereto  in  Gin- 
rick-a  Shas. 

YEDO,  June  29,  1871. 

LONG  ago,  I  started  to  tell  you  what  my  hard 
day's  work  had  been — the  hardest  of  my  life — but  I 
ran  off  the  track.  ]N"ow,  once  more,  I  will  try  to  get 
on.  First,  we  went  early  to  a  Sintoo  temple.  They 
have  two  religions  only  in  Japan — none  other  al- 
lowed (not  even  ours,  the  Christian,  except  to  us 
outsiders) — the  one,  Sintoo,  now  the  court  (Mikado) 
religion,  up  •  and  the  other,  the  Buddhist  (the  Ty- 
coon), down,  way  down,  and  only  propped  up  by 
Buddhist  money  at  court.  We  first  began  "  to  do  " 
the  temple  of  Asaxa,  some  five  or  six  miles  from  our 
hotel.  Shops,  shops,  innumerable  shops  were  on  our 
way — shops  for  shoes,  shops  for  clothes  of  all  sorts, 
shops  for  fish,  shops  for  rice,  shops  for  tea,  shops  for 
silks  and  satins — nothing  but  five  or  six  miles  of 
shops.  Temples  and  churches  look  very  much  alike 
the  world  over.  Images,  bells,  lights,  gold,  glitter, 
etc.,  just  the  same ;  but  the  novelty  here  is  a  Pagoda, 


LIFE  AND  SIGHTS  IN   YEDO.  65 

a  grand  Pagoda.  The  earthquakes  do  not  tumble  it 
over,  only  because  it  is  built  on  some  scientific 
foundation,  in  some  scientific  architecture,  so  as  to 
be  made  earthquake-proof.  The  great  novelties  are 
— if  not  Barnum's  old  museum,  something  like  it — 
a  labyrinth  called  in  our  tongue  a  theatre,  where  you 
can  go  round  and  round,  on  a  small  space,  half  the 
day,  and  see  life-size  images  of  devils,  saints,  belles, 
beauties,  beaux,  dragons,  mermaids,  etc.,  "cutting 
up  "  in  all  sorts  of  ways.  Bands  of  music  play  like 
thunder ;  and  up  hop,  and  down  go,  dragon  and  devil, 
and  you  see  hell  and  heaven — our  names  for  unknown 
Sintoo-Buddhist  things.  They  expect  only  a  tempo 
(a  cent,  from  a  Jap  to  see  these  wonders  and  mon- 
strosities; they  expect  all  they  can  get  from  the 
white  barbarians,) — and  the  other  great  novelty  is  a 
pair  of  beautiful,  sacred,  cream-colored  horses,  ever 
saddled,  if  not  ever  bridled,  with  spirits  invisible  on 
their  backs,  that,  every  now  and  then,  the  priests 
trot  about  town,  to  scare  off  evil  spirits  from  citizens' 
houses,  and  to  purify  and  bless  the  air  of  Yedo. 
When  these  horses  are  trotted  out,  guards  are  sent 
ahead  to  announce  their  coming,  and  the  Japanese 
are  expected  to  prostrate  themselves  on  the  earth 
before  them,  so  as  not  to  see  the  gods  on  their  backs. 
I  would  have  given  at  least  two  tempos,  if  not  more, 
to  lay  my  hands  upon  the  sacred  beasts,  but  the 
spirits  on  their  backs,  alas !  forbade  any  such  heathen 
desecration.  Asaxa,  outside  the  temple,  that  is,  on 
the  temple  grounds,  is  a  sort  of  arcade  or  bazaar,  in 


66  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

which  toys,  candies,  rice-cakes,  and  all  sorts  of  arcade 
things  are  sold.  It  is  a  place,  too,  where  the  people, 
by  the  thousands,  when  at  leisure,  or  on  holidays,  go, 
if  not  to  worship,  to  have  fun,  frolic,  and  a  good  time 
generally.  The  tumble-over  boys,  with  their  real 
rooster  garniture,  would  entertain  us  for  any  length 
of  time  for  a  cent  or  two.  The  women  Japs,  by  the 
hundreds,  with  babies  slung  over  their  backs,  whose 
heads  were  roasting  in  the  sun  (fire-proof  heads 
babies  must  have  here,  mem.  for  my  note-book), 
flocked  around  us,  and  made  the  air  so  hot  and 
stifling  that,  precious  as  woman  is,  her  room  here 
was  better  than  her  company.  Some  two-sworded 
fellows  looked  cross  and  scowled,  but,  in  the  main, 
the  curious  crowds  were  sociable,  kind,  very  agree- 
able, though  ever  curious,  especially  to  see  what  sort 
of  stuff  our  ladies  were  made  of. 

The  next  temple  we  visited — rather,  only  the  ruins 
of  a  temple — was  Owina.  When  the  Mikadoites 
rebelled  against  the  Tycoonites,  two  or  three  years 
ago,  this  Owina  temple,  a  stronghold  of  the  Tycoon, 
was  taken  by  assault.  The  Tycoon  had  for  years 
kept  there  a  Jap  of  the  pure  blood-royal,  the  sacred 
azul  running  in  his  veins,  with  intent  to  play  him 
off  against  the  real  Mikado,  if  ever  this  real  Mikado 
should  become  saucy,  and  attempt  to  get  the  better 
of  the  Tycoon.  Owina  was  the  home  of  this  mock 
Mikado;  and  when  the  Tycoon  thus  went  down, 
down  went  Owina  in  blood  and  in  sorrow.  We  have 
only  ruins,  ruins,  therefore,  to  sec.  Beautiful  groves 


LIFE  AND   SIGHTS  IN   YEDO.  67 

yet  exist,  magnificent  trees,  tea-gardens  for  the  enter- 
tainment of  visitors,  singing  and  dancing  girls — but 
no  priest,  no  Buddhist,  no  Sintoo,  no  any  thing  but 
ruins,  for  acres  and  acres.  Here,  on  the  overhanging  • 
hills,  was  the  only  grand,  that  is,  tip-top,  re-view  we 
had  of  Yedo.  For  thousands  of  acres  there  is  noth- 
ing in  sight  but  the  houses,  the  parks,  the  castles,  the 
streets,  the  river,  the  canals  of  Yedo.  How  big  is 
Yedo?  That  is  the  great  question  of  the  day.  I 
have  tried  hard  to  find  out,  officially  and  unofficially, 
but — quien  sabe  f  "Who  knows  ?  The  officials  won't 
tell,  and  they  do  know  now,  for  the  census  has  just 
been  taken.  Some  foreigners  say  two  millions ;  some 
one  million ;  some  only  eight  hundred  thousand.  If  I 
were  to  guess  from  the  great  city,  under  my  (Owina) 
eyes,  I  should  say  "  the  two  millions ; "  but  when  I 
look  at  the  vast  parks  of  the  Daimios  (the  nobles), 
with  their  retainers  in  the  eity,  and  the  parks  and 
castle  of  the  awful,  almighty  Mikado  (all  the  area  of 
this  city,  including  thirty-six  square  miles),  I  am 
teady  to  come  down  to  "the  one  million."  This 
difference  of  opinion  arises  from  the  floating  character 
of  the  population.  There  are  eighteen  great  Daimios, 
nine  of  whom  once  had  to  be  in  the  capital,  and  they 
brought  with  them  from  six  thousand  to  ten  thousand 
retainers,  each.  There  are  three  hundred  and  forty- 
two  lesser-light  Daimios,  and  they  all  had  their 
retainers.  Three  hundred  and  forty-two  thousand, 
it  has  been  estimated,  followers  are  in  the  trains  of 
these,  what  the  English  call  princes,  dukes,  earls, 


68  A   SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

lords,  knights,  etc.  This  ebbing  and  flowing  of  a 
court  city  with  imperial  officials,  priests,  etc.,  make 
men  differ  on  the  population  of  Yedo. 

The  circumference  of  this  Yedo  view  or  city  is 
estimated  at  twenty-five  miles.  The  temples  are 
legion.  The  god  of  war,  and  innumerable  other  gods, 
big  and  little,  have  their  temples.  Priests  are  as 
thick  as  grasshoppers  in  Utah.  The  Siro  (Djiro),  or 
the  Imperial  castle,  covers  nearly  five  miles  within 
this  circumference.  My  profane  eyes  can  only  get 
up  high,  and  look  down.  High  walls  and  many 
canals  shut  out  the  profane  crowd  from  the  pretty 
walks,  bowers,  flowers,  dwarfed-trees  and  aquatic 
birds,  that  sing  for  and  regale  the  lofty  Mikado. 
Only  ex-Secretary  Seward,  some  middies,  lieuten- 
ants, captains,  admirals,  ministers  plenipotentiary, 
.  and  like  officials,  have  ever  been  blinded  by  the 
dazzling  rays  from  the  imperial  person,  or  ever  en- 
tered on  the  mats,  or  within  the  saloons  of  his 
palace  or  castle.  Our  great  Tycoon  was  slipped  in 
diplomatically,  as  a  dazzling  American  beam  from 
the  setting  sun.  No  ladies'  eyes — that  is,  barbar- 
ian ladies'  eyes — were  ever  permitted  to  be  even 
downcast  before  his  celestial  splendor.  The  best  I 
can  do,  then,  is  to  look  about  and  look  down  here 
from  Owina. 

The  third  temple  "  done  "  this  day  was  Sheba  (not 
the  Queen  of),  a  great  Buddhist  (Tycoon)  temple, 
with  a  monstrous  big  bell,  twelve  feet  high,  and  with 
room  for  four  or  more  persons  inside — an  oblong  bell, 


LIFE   AND  SIGHTS  IN  YEDO.  69 

all  of  one  diameter,  the  clapper  of  which,  outside,  is 
a  great  big  wooden  log,  some  fifteen  feet  long,  which 
rough  machinery  pounds  the  bell  with.  The  priests 
would  not  pound  it  for  us,  for  love  or  money,  in  fear 
of  frightening  the  town.  Bell-metal,  by  the  way,  is 
much  better  and  sweeter-toned  here  in  Japan  than  in 
the  United  States.  Tell  Meneely  and  all  his  bell- 
men of  that,  and  advise  them  to  come  here  and  learn 
how  to  make  church-bells  (not  the  clappers).  Sheba 
looks  so  like  a  Catholic  temple,  a  beautiful,  costly 
one,  that  I  could  easily  fancy  myself  in  Home,  or  Mil- 
an, or  Venice — not  exactly  in  the  Roman  St.  Peter's, 
whose  architecture  is  so  superb,  or  in  the  Duomo  of 
Milan,  but  in  secondary  cathedrals,  with  magnificent 
altar-work.  The  temple  of  Sheba  is  in  the  shade,  just 
now,  among  the  Sintoos,  and  at  the  Sintoo  court,  for 
it  is  the  burial-place  of  some  of  the  Tycoons,  costly 
memorial  monuments  of  whom  fill  an  oblong,  com- 
memorating their  grandeur.  Their  Sheba  is  their 
sanctuary,  and  hence,  in  all  parts,  rich  and  highly 
ornate,  while  incense  is  kept  burning — it  may  be  for 
the  Tycoons.  Beyond  one  of  the  temples,  in  a  court, 
is  a  large  bronze  monument,  entered  by  two  heavy 
bronze  gates,  all  presented  by  the  king  or  emperor  of 
Corea,  hundreds  of  years  ago,  in  honor  of  the  sixth 
Tycoon. 

Weary  of  temples  and  priests,  monuments  and  the 
dead,  we  now,  this  same  day,  looked  up  the  living, 
and  visited  the  Foreign  Ofiice.  The  ladies  with  us 
had  intense  curiosity  to  see  the  Foreign  Office,  and 


70  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

the  foreign  ministers,  etc. — for  what  is  seen  in  the 
street  and  at  the  tea-houses  is  not  "  style ; "  and  hence 
their  curiosity  was  great  to  see  the  stylish  high 
officers  of  state.  It  required  some  negotiations  and 
much  diplomacy  to  have  ladies  admitted  to  a  foreign 
office  and  to  a  court;  but  the  American  Minister, 
highly  esteemed  by  the  Japanese  here,  and  beloved, 
I  may  say,  by  all,  was  gratified  in  his  request  to  have 
the  ladies  accompany  us.  The  fact  is,  ladies  are  not 
much  thought  of  in  Japan.  Woman  is  of  no  account, 
except  to  be  useful.  If  poor,  she  works  the  farm, 
whirls  the  spinning-wheel,  keeps  the  house,  makes  up 
the  clothes  (when  people  wear  any),  keeps  the  tea- 
houses, etc. ;  and  if  rich,  she  embroiders,  paints,  etc., 
as  did  the  old  Greek  princesses,  Penelope  &  Co. ;  but 
she  is,  nevertheless,  of  no  account.  The  greater  the 
wonder,  therefore,  that  this  low  grade  of  creatures 
could  ever  be  got  into  court !  Only  two  foreign 
ladies  ever  before  had  the  honor.  But  ours  were  ad- 
mitted with  us,  drank  tea  and  drank  champagne,  but 
did  not  smoke  !  and  what  was  worse,  kept  the  min- 
isters from  smoking,  as  they  are  too  polite  to  smoke 
when  others  do  not  smoke,  especially  foreign  women, 
whom,  as  they  see  us  thinking  much  of,  they  think 
they  must  think  something  of,  too,  more  especially 
when  with  foreigners.  (Mem. — All  foreign  min- 
isters should  smoke ;  alas,  I  don't.)  The  prime-min- 
ister, Swakara,  received  us  in  state  and  in  style,  and 
five  others,  all  in  rich  silk  robes,  and  Ishibasha,  a 
very  clever  man,  who  speaks  English  well,  was  the 


LIFE  AND  SIGHTS  IN  YEDO.  ft 

translator.  "What  we  all  said — no  matter.  What  we 
did  only  can  interest  anybody ;  but  that  would  be 
too  long  to  tell.  The  reception-room  was  fitted  up 
in  European  style  as  to  tables  and  chairs  only,  but 
every  thing  else  was  Japanese  —  mats  (European 
carpets  were  laid  over  some  of  them,  that  our  feet 
should  not  soil  the  mats),  screens,  hanging  pic- 
tures, representing  Japanese  scenes,  officials  of  rank, 
etc.,  and  when  once  inside,  and  these  screens  were 
removed,  a  view  was  opened  to  us  of  a  beautiful 
garden. 

The  next  visit  we  made  this  day  (after  a  drive  in 
the  park  of  the  foreign  ministers'  quarter,  a  choice 
spot  allowed  the  English  mission  to  erect  a  palace 
upon,  and  to  the  gate  "  where  the  elephant  could  not 
go  through,"  the  Japanese  name  of  a  gate,  where  an 
elephant  presented  to  the  court  once  got  squeezed) — 
was  to  Hamagoten,  a  bewitching  spot,  both  near  and 
on  the  sea,  where  the  foreign  Japanese  ministers  en- 
tertain the  foreign  ministers  of  Europe.  Hamagoten 
is  the  fishing  country  residence  of  the  old  Tycoon.  It 
looks  out  on  the  Bay  of  Yedo,  takes  in  the  cool  sea 
breezes,  and  yet  has  all  the  charms  and  witcheries  of 
country  life  —  bowers,  groves,  tea-houses,  flowers, 
plants,  great  trees  and  little  dwarfed  trees,  artificial 
shrubbery  that  makes  you  laugh  to  look  at  its  fan- 
tasies, lakes,  gold  fishes,  etc.  The  Japanese  grandees 
well  know  how  to  enjoy  country  life.  They  are  lords 
of  creation  here.  Duke,  lord,  nor  knight,  nor  banker, 
in  England,  does  not  surpass,  if  equal,  a  right  royal 


72  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

Daimio  in  country  sports  and  luxuries.     But  more, 
by-and-by,  of  Hamagoten. 

Would  you  not  think  the  doings  of  this  day  in 
Yedo  were  enough  for  a  traveller  ?  But  we  had  the 
night  before  us,  and  if  all  Yedo  was  not  startled  by 
our  doings,  it  was  because  all  Yedo  did  not  see  us. 
A  young  American  from  New  York,  now  in  Yedo 
instructing  Japanese  in  English  and  French,  told  us  of 
a  tea-house  where  was,  in  some  sort,  the  Yedo  opera, 
and  where  music  was  "done,"  and  dancing  was 
done,  and  the  ballet  corps,  if  not  numerous,  was 
striking  and  strange.  Travellers  must  see  all  sights, 
you  know.  It  would  not  do  to  go  to  Yedo  without 
patronizing  music  and  dancing,  etc.  "We  engaged 
six  gin-rick-a  sJias.  What  sort  of  a  sha  this  gin  is, 
look  back  and  see.  Our  party  was  six — six  only, 
except  the  coolies  that  pulled  the  gins — and  our  out- 
riders on  horseback  were  six  in  number.  The  coolies 
had  mantles  on  when  they  started — that  is  all  I  need 
say  of  them  now,  for  the  weather  was  hot ;  and  pull- 
ing a  man  or  woman  in  a  gin-rick-a  ska  is  a  perspir- 
ing action  in  hot  weather.  The  coolies  ran  and 
raced,  and  the  horses'  feet  clattered  over  the  streets 
and  stones  of  Yedo,  and  the  swords  of  the  guards- 
men (Yakonins)  rattled  as  the  horses  -galloped  to 
keep  up  with  the  "  gin  "  and  the  coolies.  We  made 
a  grand  procession  through  many  of  the  important 
streets  of  Yedo.  Each  coolie  carried  a  lantern,  and 
each  horseman,  too,  though  the  moon  was  shining 
bright.  Such  a  procession  seldom,  if  ever  before, 


LIFE  AND  SIGHTS  IN  YEDO.  Y3 

waked  up  the  Tedoites.  Crowds  collected  to  stare 
at  us.  Jap  yelp  upon  yelp  here  announced  our  com- 
ing. John  Gilpin's  ride  could  not  have  equalled 
ours  in  the  curiosity  excited,  though  we  fared  far  bet- 
ter than  poor  John. 

The  opera-house  we  visited,  if  I  may  dignify  the 
tea-house  we  halted  at  with  that  high-sounding  name, 
was  not  quite  equal  to  the  La  Scala  of  Milan,  or  the 
Academy  of  Music.  No  boxes,  no  pit,  no  stage,  only 
a  mat  floor,  second  story,  in  a  low-roofed  room.  The 
orchestra  or  music— what  shall  I  say  of  it? — was  in 
the  shape  of  six  or  seven  guitar-looking  things,  with 
some  strings  on  them,  not  pulled  by  the  fingers,  but 
hit  by  a  piece  of  board.  The  ballet  corps  did  double 
duty — acted,  as  well  as  chanted,  pantomimed  and 
danced.  A  New  York  opera-house  critic  could  turn 
out,  in  the  morning  journal,  a  column  of  mysterious 
criticism  upon  the  music  and  ballet  I  heard  and  saw, 
but  I  have  no  genius  in  that  line,  and  so  must  stop. 
All  I  can  say  is,  I  stretched  out  on  the  mat  and  went 
to  sleep,  worn  out  with  the  day's  doings — while 
others  chow-chowed  (ate)  cakes  and  candies,  sipped 
saki  (Japanese  whiskey),  tea,  and  Bass'  English  beer. 
Happy  was  I  to  gin-riclc-a,  sha  it  home,  and  sleep, 
sleep,  as  man  never  before  slept,  until  he  takes  the 
sleep  forever. 

All  now  that  can  interest  you  of  this  hard  day's 
work  is  the  opera  bill — thus  made  out  on  Japanese 
tea-paper,  two  feet  long,  which,  being  translated, 
reads  thus  • 


74  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

TOKEI,  5  month,  13  day  (June  29),  1871. 
Six  gin-rick-a  shas  (carriage 

riding  for  six) 6  boos  $1  50 

Singing  girls 1  rio  and  3  boos  1  75 

Dancing  girls 3  rio  and  1  boo  3  25 

Beer 1  boo  25 

Fish  (for  coolies)  and  saki ...  2  rio  and  1  boo  2  25 

$9  00 

All  the  cost  for,  six  United  States  Yankees,  six 
Yakonins  (guards),  and  six  coolies,  including  the 
horses  and  carriage  riding. 

Something  cheaper,  you  see,  than  the  grand  opera 
of  Paris,  London,  and  New  York,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  fish  .for  the  coolies  and  the  Yakonins ! 

If  I  can  ever  get  time  to  go  to  a  theatre,  I  will 
send  you  a  theatre  bill  of  fare ;  but  Jap  plays,  like 
Chinese  plays,  are  eternal,  often  beginning  in  the 
morning  and  running  through  a  week  or  two. 


LETTER   IX. 

LIFE  AND  SIGHTS  IN  YE  DO. 

Eyes  only  Useful  Here.— Tongue  and  Ears  Useless.— Shopping  in  Tedo.— Hotels  in 
Japan.— Grand  Hotel  in  Yedo.— Breakfest  with  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs 
at  Hamagoten. — Dinner  at  a  Beautiful  Country-Seat. — Discussions,  Political  and 
Theological.— "Why  the  Japanese  don't  like  Christians.— The  Schools  of  Japan. — 
Beading,  Writing,  and  Arithmetic  almost  Universal. 

YEDO,  June  30,  1871. 

WHAT  a  miserable  life  it  is  to  be  in  a  country 
where  you  can  understand  nothing  through  your 
ears,  except  the  yelling  and  mewing  of  cats,  the 
harking  of  dogs,  and  the  crying  of  babies,  strapped  on 
their  mothers'  or  little  sisters'  backs!  Even  dogs 
bark,  not  in  English,  but  in  a  Japanese  way.  The 
baby-crying  is  the  only  real  familiar  sound  to  greet 
my  ears.  The  cocks  have  a  new  way  of  crowing, 
and  the  hens  of  cackling.  None  of  the  birds  sing  as 
our  birds  sing,  if  any  of  them  sing  at  all,  though  they 
make  an  infernal  noise  for  birds.  There  are  no 
sheep  to  bleat  and  make  you  happy,  and  the  cows, 
if  there  are  any,  and  the  bulls,  but  very  few,  are  so 
well  drilled  they  never  low  or  roar.  The  temple 
bells,  even,  are  not  our  bells.  They  do  not  speak 
English,  or  French,  or  German,  or  any  other  Euro- 
pean language,  but  utter  notes  of  their  own.  I 


76  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

should,  therefore,  have  the  blues  in  such  a  deaf  and 
dumb  land,  if  American  and  English  friends  had  not 
sprung  up  in  all  directions.  The  fish,  all,  are  new 
fish,  as  well  as  the  birds ;  the  trees,  most  of  them, 
new  trees ;  the  flowers  all  new,  if  we  had  not  im- 
ported many  of  them  into  America.  I  cannot  even 
go  a-shopping  alone,  where  there  is  any  thing  won- 
derful to  buy.  I  cannot  tell  what  I  want ;  and 
when  I  do,  I  cannot  get  at  the  price  of  it,  especially 
in  measures  and  weights,  all  new  to  us,  and  worse, 
by  far,  than  the  kilometres  and  kilogrammes  of  our 
French  and  Continental  neighbors.  If  the  rascals 
that  went  to  work  at  that  Tower  of  Babel  had  had 
any  idea  of  what  a  confusion  in  the  world  they  were 
making,  do  you  think  they  would  have  tried  to  build 
it?  Here  I  am  in  a  Yedo  street,  staring  and  stared 
at,  knowing  nothing,  and  profiting  nothing  from* 
Greek,  Latin,  or  some  considerable  smattering  in  sev- 
eral European  tongues.  I  would  (perhaps  ?)  give  up  all 
my  five  or  six  years  of  Greek  and  Latin,  if  I  could  only 
speak  five  or  six  words  of  Japanese,  such  as,  "  What's 
the  price  of  this  or  that  ? "  or,  "  Show  me  some  silks, 
or  crapes,  or  satins,  or  fans,  or  lacquer,  or  copper  en- 
graving." Here  are  thirty-five  millions  of  living 
Japanese,  and  I  have  spent  years  of  my  life  studying 
dead  Latin,  and  deader  Greek  (I  would  do  it  over 
again,  though);  and  I  can't  read  the  names  of  the 
streets,  or  the  numbers  of  the  street !  I  do  not  know 
even  my  letters !  I  want  to  ask  a  million  of  questions, 
such  as  "  How  do  you  weave  or  spin  that  ?  "  or  "  carve 


LIFE  AND   SIGHTS  IN  YEDO.  77 

this  ? "  or,  "  Why  do  you  stable  your  horses'  heads 
where  we  put  the  horses'  tails  ? "  "  Why  do  you  mount 
your  beasts  on  the  wrong  side  ? "  "  Why  don't  you  use 
wheelbarrows  in  lieu  of  bamboo  baskets,  when  dig- 
ging canals  in  Yedo  ? "  "  Why  do  you  saw  back- 
ward ? "  "  Why  do  you  plane  backward  ?  "  But  I 
cannot  talk ;  I  am  deaf;  I  am  dumb  ;  I  might  as  well 
be  a  horse  in  Yedo,  when  alone,  as  a  man  in  the 
streets  all  alone ! 

Shopping  is  the  chief  business  of  foreigners  in 
Japan,  and  hence  we  all  go  a-shopping.  There  is  a 
Curio  Street  in  both  Yokohama  and  Japan — that  is, 
a  street  of  curiosities.  The  lacquer  ware  is  wonder- 
ful, both  dear  and  cheap — dear,  if  very  old  and  very 
artistic,  and  cheap  as  dirt,  if  fresh  and  poorly 
wrought  on.  The  bronzes  are  astonishing.  Where 
did  the  Japanese  ^)ick  up  their  wonderful  art 
in  this-?  Their  work  in  silk  and  crape,  too,  is 
wonderful,  and  very,  very  cheap  for  some  things. 
Mantillas — if  one  may  so  call  them — obics,  that  is, 
curiously-worked  sashes  to  go  round  the  waist,  are 
often  in  the  very  highest  art.  A  silk  man  in  Yoko- 
hama is  imitating  European  dressing-gowns,  and  he 
will  fit  you  out  in  crape  work  for  about  five  dollars, 
so  that  you  would  not  be  known  from  a  peacock. 
Rock  crystal  is  curiously  wrought,  and  very  precious 
to  the  Japanese.  I  have  just  been  buying  a  suit  of 
armor,  once  belonging  to  some  stately  Daimio,  which 
cost  him,  four  or  five  hundred  years  ago,  if  the  offi- 
cial certificates  do  not  lie,  some  five  hundred  dollars 


Y8  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

— gold  wrought,  and  embossed,  and  with  terrible-look- 
ing gold  dragons ;  but  the  days  of  armor  are  over  now, 
and  coats  of  mail  being  worth  nothing  to  the  owner 
— what  I  gave  for  it — no  matter ;  but  dog  cheap,  if 
the  certificates  do  not  lie.  Sixty  or  seventy  tons  of 
Japanese  curios  went  out  on  the  last  steamer  for  San 
Francisco,  and  they  will  make,  if  I  am  not  misin- 
formed, all  the  Yankee  sight-seers  there  stare.  I  am. 
negotiating  for  temples  and  pagodas,  but  the  state 
"  religion  "  is  not  down  enough  here  yet  to  buy  gods 
and  temples  cheap.  "What  a  pity  they  are  not  as 
cheap  as  armor  !  Oh,  if  I  could  only  talk,  talk,  talk, 
how  I  would  shop  here  in  Yedo  !  And  what  is  the  use 
of  the  American  great  "  gift  of  the  gab  "  in  such  a 
deaf  and  dumb  place  as  this  ? 

I  had  got  it  into  my  head  that  there  were  no 
hotels  in  Japan — nothing  but  "tea-houses  and  mats 
for  foreigners  to  live  in,  or  sleep  on;  but  I  am 
mistaken.  There  is  a  European  hotel  here  in  Yedo 
— an  American  hotel,  I  had  better  say — run  now  by 
an  American,  as  big  as  the  old  burnt-down  Congress 
Hall  'or  United  States,  of  Saratoga — nay,  as  big  as 
the  Ocean  House,  at  Newport.  The  Japanese  built 
it,  under  English  inspiration,  to  meet  the  wants  of 
foreigners  expected  at  Yedo,  but  they  have  never 
come,  and  the  hotel  has  never  paid  a  cent  in  return 
to  the  builders.  Some  five  hundred  people  could  be 
crowded  into  it,  but  now  it  has  not  thirty  guests,  and 
the  most  of  them  boarders  in  official  position,  or 
teachers.  There  is  a  Yankee  captain  here,  from  New 


LIFE  AND  SIGHTS  IN  YEDO.  79 

York,  who  has  been  running  steamships  for  some 
time,  between  port  and  port  in  Japan,  mainly  for  the 
Japanese  Government.  We  have  no  consul  now  at 
Yedo,  but  a  vice-consul  acts  by  ambassadorial  ap- 
pointment, and  boards  at  the  hotel,  with  the  United 
States  flag  up  over  him.  The  Minister  resides  in 
Yokohama,  and  has  not  a  place  in  Yedo  to  put  his 
head  in,  save  this  hotel.  And  there,  is  the  "  Grand 
Hotel"  in  Yokohama,  and  the  "International  Ho- 
tel," and  there  are  lots  of  other  hotels  for  Tom,  Dick, 
and  Harry.  There  will  be  rest  for  you,  you  see,  fu- 
ture traveller  to  Japan,  and  very,  very  fair  fare,  if  not 
the  best  of  fare,  such  as  in  America.  You  can  have 
chairs  to  sit  on  at  table,  and  not  be  compelled  to 
squat  on  mats,  and  eat  with  chop-sticks  on  the  floor. 
Civilization  has  got  here,  and  is  teaching  all  sorts  of 
its  novelties  to  the  wonder-stricken  Japs,  who  think  we 
are  fools  to  fill  up  our  rooms  with  tables,  and  sofas, 
and  chairs,  and  bedsteads.  They  hang  out  beautiful 
screens,  some  of  them  high  works  of  art,  and  when 
you  open  your  eyes  in  the  morning,  you  see,  not 
graceless  chairs  and  crooked-legged  tables,  but  works 
of  art  all  over  and  around  you.  Away  with  the 
screens,  and  lo,  presto !  every  room  in  your  house, 
on  the  same  floor,  is  turned  into  one  grand  room.  I 
have  thought  this  great  Yedo  hotel  might  be  con- 
verted into  a  grand  watering-place  on  the  Bay  of 
Yedo — for  it  is  all  alone  by  itself,  wall-surrounded, 
set  apart  and  consecrated  to  foreign  residents  only. 
Bathing  and  boating  are  here  close  at  hand.  Some 


80  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

day  lience,  it  may  he,  Americans  will  come  over  to 
Yedo  as  to  Long  Branch,  or  Cape  May ;  for,  with 
the  exception  of  the  mosquitoes,  that  we  shut  off 
with  nets,  and  the  fleas,  which  we  can  scare  off  with 
flea-powder,  it  is  a  paradise  of  a  place.  The  climate  in 
summer  is  very  like  that  of  Cape  May,  or  Old  Point 
Comfort.  The  Japs  are  so  impressed  by  the  gran- 
deur of  this  two-storied  hotel,  with  a  tower,  that 
shakes  well  when  an  earthquake  comes  along,  or  a 
typhoon,  that  they  pay  twelve  and  a  half  cents  of 
our  money  to  come  in  and  look  at  it,  and  the  keeper 
lets  out  the  privilege  or  monopoly  at  seventy  dollars 
per  month. 

I  have  had  two  distinguished  invitations  to  go 
out  in  Yedo,  both  from  Japanese — one  to  breakfast, 
the  other  to  dine — and  I  accepted  them  with  pleas- 
ure, without  knowing,  though  somewhat  fearing,  the 
strange  things  I  might  have  to  eat.  (At  the  Chinese 
meals,  it  is  (not  Japanese)  where  one  may  have  rats, 
cats,  or  dogs,  and  birds'  nests,  as  well  as  fish  and  rice.) 
The  service,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  both  at  the  breakfast 
and  dinner,  was  European.  We  all  sat  upright,  all 
ate  with  knives  and  forks,  all  drank  European  wines, 
as  well  as  tea,  with  no  saki ;  all  smoked,  though 
with  pipes  of  very  different  organizations. 

The  breakfast  was  given  to  the  American  Minis- 
ter and  myself  by  the  Prime-Minister  of  the  Board 
of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  was  in  the  beautiful  garden 
of  Hamagoten.  Invited  at  eleven  A.  M.,  we  break- 
fasted till  four  r.  M.  !  One  poor,  hard-working  fellow, 


LIFE  AND  SIGHTS  IN   YEDO.  81 

the  very  clever  interpreter,  Ishibashi,  did  all  the 
talking  for  us  (double-talked),  and  we  gave  him  no 
time  for  eating,  only  for  talk,  talk,  talk.  Five  hours 
of  talk,  only  think  of  it,  for  an  interpreter !  The 
talk  was  about  almost  every  thing  on  the  earth,  over 
the  earth,  and  under  the  earth,  more  particularly, 
though,  on  affairs  of  government,  and  the  science 
of  government,  in  which  these  Japanese  gentleman 
seem  to  be  deeply  interested.  Their  conversation 
exhibited  skill,  learning,  and  ability,  and  showed 
they  had  been  well  educated,  not  only  in  their  own 
books,  but  were  pretty  well  acquainted  with  Ameri- 
can and  European  affairs.  They  puzzled  much  over 
the  fact  that  the  American  Minister  and  myself  were 
friends  though  far  apart  in  politics.  They  fight  and 
kill  in  party  politics,  while  we  only  vote.  They 
could  not  well  understand  why  ^Nevada,  his  State, 
should  have  as  much  influence  in  Congress  (the  Sen- 
ate) as  mine,  New  York  (nor  can  I).  They  could  not 
understand  our  tariffs,  nor  can  I.  Their  history 
they  hold  to  be  good  for  two  thousand  two  hundred 
years,  and  pretty  accurate  for  two  thousand  five 
hundred  years.  They  have  records  they  rely  on  so 
far  back.  Their  letters,  they  own,  they  get  from 
China,  and  the  classics  of  Confucius  and  Mencius  are 
their  classics.  They  think  they  are  Mongolian,  not 
of  Chinese  origin,  and  probably  they  came  down 
from  Corea.  The  costumes  of  these  gentlemen  were 
robes  of  a  peculiar  silk,  one  of  them  white  (flowered), 

with  Turkish  trowsers  and  sandals.     The  chief  had 
5 


82  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

on  an  extraordinary  liat,  the  tissue  of  which  I  cannot 
describe — a  hat  uplifted  like  a  tower,  and  only  to 
cover  the  queue.  This  hat  was  put  on  in  deference 
to  the  guests,  whereas  we  take  off  hats  in  deference ; 
and  wlfen  the  hat  wearied  him  from  its  weight  he 
begged  permission  to  take  it  off,  and  we  cheerfully 
relieved  him  from  the  burden,  of  course.  The  ser- 
vants waited  upon  us  in  the  most  deferential  silence. 
Not  a  look  or  emotion  ever  escaped  them.  •  From 
behind  screens  they  peeped  in  to  imagine  our  wants, 
and  instantly  heeded  them.  A  small  boy  did  the 
table-bell  business,  and  when  any  thing  extra  was 
needed,  the  ^oy^bell  ran  in,  and  on  hands  and  knees 
tumbled  on  the  floor,  to  hear  the  whisper  of  the  high 
personage  commanding  him. 

The  dinner  was  given  us  with  our  ladies,  though 
ladies  seem  of  no  account  in  Japan,  woman's  rights 
never  having  reached  here;  but  our  Japanese  host 
had  been  in  America,  spoke  English,  and  knew 
American  habits  well.  We  went  to  the  place  of  the 
dinner — a  magnificent  country-seat,  though  in  the 
city,  by  the  water's  edge — in  a  Japanese  pleasure 
boat,  sculled,  not  rowed,  by  Japs,  and  the  seats  were 
pretty  mats,  and  the  sides  of  our  cabins  were  paper 
slides  with  pictures  upon  them.  On,  on,  on,  we  were 
"  sculled,"  on  the  Bay  of  Tedo  not  far  from  its  port, 
and  up  a  river,  under  many  bridges  and  through 
canals — how  far  I  do  not  know,  only  regretting,  so 
much  of  novelty  was  to  be  seen  by  the  way,  that  the 
distance  was  not  longer.  Junks,  heavily  laden  with 


LIFE  AND   SIGHTS  IN  YEDO.  83 

the  produce  of  the  country,  were  passed ;  fishermen's 
nets  were  glided  over ;  manufactories  were  seen,  etc. 
Yedo  seen  by  land  I  have  tried  to  sketch,  but  this 
was  Tedo  by  water.  Our  Japanese  entertainers  were 
very  gallant  to  our  ladies.  Two  of  them  spoke 
English,  were  well  educated  in  New  Brunswick, 
N.  J.,  and  in  New  England.  They  showed  us 
all  over  the  delightful  pleasure-grounds.  We  sailed 
on  little  artificial  lakes  in  pleasure-boats.  We  saw 
for  the  first  time  the  tea-plant  growing.  We  had 
explained  to  us  the  wonderful  process  of  grafting 
and  dwarfing  trees  by  which  gate-ways  are  made  of 
them,  and  how  they  are  turned  into  junks,  castles, 
temples,  beasts,  lions,  dragons— any  thing  you  want. 
Some  of  them,  years  old,  were  scarcely  ^a  foot  high, 
and  yet  perfect  as  trees,  otherwise,  in  all  their  trunks, 
branches  or  limbs,  and  leaves.  The  flowers,  too,  are 
thus  dwarfed — many  of  them  not  an  inch  high,  in 
flower-pots,  but  perfect  as  flowers.  I  know  nothing 
of  botany  or  horticulture,  or  I  would  expand  on  this 
wonderful  art.  It  fills  me  with  amazement,  for  I  do 
not  recollect  of  ever  reading  of  the  like  before  my 
coming  here.  The  summer-houses  (tea-houses)  were 
numerous  in  this  place.  The  walks  were  shady  and 
pretty.  Little  fountains  gurgle  out  their  tiny  wa- 
ters. We  Americans,  that  build  up  hundred-thou- 
sand dollar  country  seats,  think  we  know  something ; 
but  in  this  line  we  are  behind  the  age.  Such  a 
"  seat "  as  I  am  dining  in  would  cost,  near  New  York, 
half  a  million  of  dollars. 


84:  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

As  we  were  dining — and  we  had  European  luxu- 
ries in  European  style — the  Japanese  women  would 
peep  round  the  screens  to  peep  at  our  ladies.  Curi- 
osity is  the  same  with  the  sex  the  world  over.  We 
discussed  many  things ;  theology  not  a  little.  The 
Japs  have  an  idea  like  ours  of  the  creation  of  the 
human  race,  but  as  I  understood  our  table  expounder 
of  Japanese  theology,  they  believe  woman  (our  Eve) 
was  made  before  our  man  (Adam).  This  exposition 
delighted  our  ladies,  and  I  send  it  especially  to  glad- 
den the  hearts  of  Mrs.  Stanton  and  others.  It  is  hard 
to  put  up,  even  at  a  Pagan's  hospitable  table,  with 
Pagan  gods,  and  goddesses,  and  spirits,  and  to  be 
compelled  to  listen  to  the  divinity  of  them  (ugly- 
looking  blocks  and  images  as  they  are),  but  it  is 
harder  yet  to  hear  our  Old  Testament  and  2sTew 
Testament  all  overthrown,  and  to  be  told  Christ,  like 
Mahomet,  Confucius  and  Mencius,  or  Brigham 
Young,  was  only  a  very  clever  man — as  good  and  as 
wise  as  Confucius,  perhaps,  but  no  wiser  nor  better. 
I  asked,  "Why  they  fought  Christianity  so  in 
Japan  ? "  "  Because,"  they  replied,  "  it  interferes 
with  the  Government."  "Its  ministers  are  often 
impertinent."  "  They  interfere  with  what  they  have 
no  concern."  "  The  Roman  Catholics,  you  know, 
once  were  allowed  full  swing  here  ;  had  missions  and 
followers  everywhere ;  and  they  turned  into  politi- 
cians, such  politicians  that  we  had  to  clear  out  the 
whole  of  them."  Nevertheless,  the  medical  mission- 
aries are  well  received  in  Japan.  One  of  them,  Dr. 


LIFE  AND  SIGHTS  IN  YEDO.  85 

Hepburne,  is  dearly  beloved  by  them,  aiid  has  made  an 
Anglo-Jap  dictionary,  the  only  one,  and  which  all, 
more  or  less,  are  studying. 

I  have  had  long  talks,  here  and  elsewhere,  on  the 
schools  of  Japan — on  reading  and  writing,  arithmetic, 
etc.  The  Japanese  tell  me  not  everybody  reads  and 
writes,  but  almost  everybody,  more  or  less.  Every- 
body keeps  accounts,  or  seems  to — not  reckoning  as 
we  do  with  Arabic  figures,  but  on  boxes  with  pegs 
for  our  numbers.  The  dialects  of  the  thirty-five 
millions  of  people  in  Japan  are  numerous,  and  as 
puzzling,  even  to  the  natives,  as  are  the  dialects  of 
Yorkshire  and  Lancashire  in  England,  or  the  Welsh 
or  the  Celtic  to  the  English.  The  Court  has  one 
tongue,  the  coolies  another,  and  the  provinces  all 
have  their  dialects.  "  Education,"  however,  as  we 
call  it,  is  pretty  well  d iffused  in  Japan — that  is,  read- 
ing, writing,  and  arithmetic,  or  the  three  "  R's,"  as 
some  call  it.  But  is  reading,  writing,  and  arith- 
metic "  education  ? "  I  do  not  think  it  is.  Are 
common  schools  that  teach  only  the  "  R's  "  good  for 
much  ?  Certainly  not  in  Japan,  as  I  see  things  here 
(if  in  America).  The  three  "  R's  "  are  only  tools  to 
work  with,  and  if  that  is  all  a  man  knows,  his  tools 
are  more  likely  to  be  used  by  others  against  than  for 
him.  Here  all,  more  or  less,  are  the  creatures,  in- 
struments, tools  of  the  Princes,  the  Daimios,  the 
nobility,  the  two-sworded  men,  who  ride  rough-shod 
over  the  many,  and  keep  them  poor  while  they  hold 
all  the  wealth.  Some  one  and  a  half  millions  thus 


86  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

quarter  upon  the  other  thirty-three  and  a  half  mil- 
lions, though  all,  or  nearly  all,  can  read,  write,  and 
cipher  as  well  as  we  do- in  the  United  States. 

Our  dinner  over,  we  glided  back  in  our  luxurious 
gondola — shall  I  call  it? — to  the  Hotel  of  Yedo. 
Our  party  spent  the  evening  on  the  cool  waters  of 
the  bay  among  the  fishermen,  listening  to  their 
"  yeow,"  "  yeow,"  or  singing,  or  chanting,  or  study- 
ing the  stars  to  see  if  the  same  luminaries  were  over 
our  heads  as  over  our  dear,  dear  friends  now  under 
our  feet  at  home.  It  relieves  one  of  one's  homesick- 
ness to  see  the  same  bright  lights  over  one's  head 
that  one  sees  at  home,  and  thus  to  feel  in  this  deaf 
and  dumb  life  here,  the  world  is  the  same  for  Jap, 
and  John,  and  Jerry,  no  matter  where  born. 


LETTER  X. 

TRAVELLER'S  LIFE  IN  THE  INTERIOR. 

The  Great  God  of  Kamakura.—"  Statue  of  Dai-bootz."— Life  to  Japanese  Tea-Honses. 
— Ride  in  a  Cango  Bamboo  Basket — The  Temples  around  Kamakura. — Beautiful 
Scenery.— Fields  cultivated  like  Gardens.— The  life  and  Kank  of  Japanese 
Farmers.— Visit  to  the  Cave  of  Inosima.— Fish  Life  and  Fish  Dinners.— The 
"Mikado"  and  the  "Tocaido." — Politeness  and  Amiability  of  the  Japanese 
Farmers. 

FCJISAWA,  July  3,  1871. 

HAPPY  times  we  are  having  in  a  tea-house  tavern 
— hotel  we  should  call  it — but  there  are  no  teds  to 
sleep  on,  no  tables  to  eat  on,  no  chairs  to  sit  on ! 
There  is  a  jolly  party  of  us,  and  we  are  doing  our 
own  cooking,  with  maidens  all  around  to  stare  at  us, 
the  mother  of  them  all  to  admire  us,  and  a  whole 
village  about  to  help  us.  We  should  not  cook  if  we 
could  trust  the  maidens  to  cook  the  fish  for  ITS  ;  but 
there  is  no  foretelling  what  they  might  put  into  the 
lish  for  sauce,  and  the  copper  sauce-pans  they  fry  fish 
in,  and  the  matters  they  fry  it  with,  are  thought  to 
be  rather  suspicious.  We  brought  our  own  bread 
and  butter — both  are  unknown  in  Japan  as  native- 
used  articles  of  food — and  with  this,  and  sardines, 
and  plenty  of  excellent  fish  and  tea,  we  made  a  first- 
rate  dinner. 


88  -A.  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

We  are  on  our  way  to  see  a  great  god,  if  not  the 
great  god,  of  Kamakura  (once  a  great  city,  a  capital, 
but  now  all  run  down),  and  the  great  god  is  "  Dai- 
lootz"  or  "  Great  Buddha  " — but  we  tarry  in  this  tea- 
house over-night.  I  do  not  think  much  of  sleeping 
on  mats  all  night.  They  are  full  of  fleas,  big  ones, 
and  they  bite,  too.  They  are  full  of  mosquitoes,  but 
we  don't  care  for  them,  if  our  net  bars  are  strong 
enough  to  stand  their  twisting  and  wriggling  to  break 
in,  but  they  are  not.  "  Buzz,"  "  buzz,"  "  whizz," 
"whizz."  You  know  all  about  that,  even  in  New 
York  city,  and  all  over  Jersey.  Then  we  had  Japan 
guitar  music  nearly  all  night,  from  the  damsels 
below,  which  is  no  better  than  mosquito  music,  I 
being  judge.  Then  we  had  cat  music.  The  cats 
of  Japan  seem  to  me  to  have  extraordinary  lung 
strength,  and  when  they  utter  their  love  notes,  and 
purr,  and  squall  here,  they  make  the  welkin  ring. 
One  of  our  man  party  jumped  about  all  night,  flea- 
bitten  ;  the  ladies  averred  they  had  not  closed  their 
eyes,  but  who  believed  them  ?  As  for  myself,  I  am 
flea-proof,  mosquito-bomb-proof.  I  snored,  they  say 
— the  only  sign  I  was  not  sleeping  well,  just  as  well 
as  usual.  You  would  not  understand  Japan-travel- 
ling if  I  did  not  enter  into  all  these  minutiae,  and 
therefore  you  must  excuse  the  personality. 

We  had  a  whole  floor  to  ourselves,  and  on  that 
floor  perhaps  a  dozen  rooms — all  one,  though,  when 
the  paper  screens  were  removed.  Such  tenements  as 
these,  you  see,  are  not  very  favorable  for  private  life, 


TRAVELLER'S  LIFE  IN   THE  INTERIOR.  89 

or  secrecy,  or  domesticity.  One  cannot  whisper  at 
night  without  being  heard  all  over  the  domicil.  A 
husband  can  not  scold  a  wife,  or,  a  wife  "  Caudle  " 
a  husband,  without  everybody's  hearing.  Flirting  is 
impossible,  and  courting  would  be,  if  courting  were 
ever  heard  of  in  Japan.  Wives  are  not  won  by 
courting  here,  but  put  in  the  market  by  father  and 
mother  to  tKe  best  or  most  fitting  bidder.  They 
know  little  or  nothing  of  their  future  husbands  till 
their  teeth  are  to  be  blackened  and  their  eyebrows 
shaved  for  matrimony.  When  we  breakfasted,  all 
Fujisawa,  having  heard  of  the  event,  ran  to  our 
doors,  or  gathered  around  us,  to  see  us  eat  on  our 
improvised  table,  with  Jap  wooden  sleeping-pillows 
adopted  for  chairs;  and  if  one  thing  more  than 
another  seemed  to  astound  them,  it  must  have  been 
the  enormous  quantity  of  tea  we  drank. 

But  to  the  great  god,  Dai-'bootz^  and  his  holy 
temple !  We  fitted  out,  to  visit  him,  a  retinue  you 
would  have  laughed  your  eyes  out  to  see — six  cangos 
and  eighteen  coolies  as  our  equipage !  The  cango  is 
a  sort  of  bamboo  basket,  and  two  coolies  carry  you 
on  a  pole.  Our  coolies  were  in  the  livery  of  nature, 
save  their  straw  shoes,  cotton  cloth  girdle,  and  hand- 
kerchiefs around  their  heads.  We  men  are  heavy 
fellows,  some  of  us  over  two  hundred  pounds,  a  heavy 
load  for  two  coolies  to  carry  in  a  basket  for  miles,  up 
hill  and  down  hill,  over  creeks,  streams,  and  through 
ocean  surf  and  sands,  and  therefore  we  took  a  coolie 
extra  for  every  cango.  Three  or  four  bettos  (boys 


90  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

that  run  with  the  horses)  were  our  outriders.  The 
hours  I  spent  in  that  bamboo  basket  cango  will  ever 
be  deeply  dented  on  my  memory.  But  Tankee 
trained  as  I  was,  I  was  up  to  it.  "  Our  heels  ever 
higher  than  our  heads,"  is  about  the  first  posture  we, 
when  boys,  learn  in  !New  England,  and  heels  higher 
than  heads  in  a  basket  is  cango  riding  here.  We  lean 
back  on  chairs  at  home,  and  put  our  heels  on  the 
mantel-piece,  and  this  is  Japan  cango  riding.  Japs 
do  it  easily,  for  they  are  short  fellows,  and  squat; 
but  for  our  long  legs  it  is  hard  work,  unless  brought 
up  to  it.  In  these  cangos  we  made  our  pilgrimage  to 
Dai-loots.  We  spied  out  "the  great  Buddha"  at 
last,  prettily  situated  in  a  small  gravelled  court, 
surrounded  by  a  growth  of  bamboos,  camelias,  dios- 
pyros,  oaks,  and  conifers,  and  approached  it  up  a 
flight  of  steps  and  stone  portal.  The  Buddhist 
priests  were  glad  to  see  us.  They  were  sure  of  extra 
boos  (twenty-five-cent  paper  pieces),  and  welcomed 
us  with  smiles,  tea,  and  a  lithograph  of  their  idol. 
We  went  inside  of  him,  after  running  all  around  him 
on  the  outside.  His  inside  is  full  of  gilt  Buddhist 
saints,  with  croziers,  glories  around  the  head,  etc.,  etc. 
We  threw  tempos  (cents)  up  into  his  head,  to  hear 
them  rattle.  The  priests  liked  it,  for  we  did  not  pick 
them  up,  though  they  were  frightened  lest  the  heavy 
copper  tempos,  falling  back,  might  hit  on  their  shaven 
heads.  We  skirted  on  the  outside  again,  the  better 
to  comprehend  this  huge  mass  of  bronze,  fifty  feet 
high,  and  thirty  feet  wide  at  its  base,  which  rests  on 


TRAVELLER'S  LIFE  IN  THE  INTERIOR.  91 

a  pile  of  masonry,  six  feet  high.  We  ran  again  into 
the  inside  to  see  how  the  bronze  joints  were  put 
together,  and  these  joints  were  almost  imperceptible. 
We  got  up  into  the  old  fellow's  arms.  Six  of  us 
sat  on  his  thumbs !  We  looked  into  his  face,  and 
saw  there  "  the  mournful  repose,"  the  lips  closed,  the 
eyes  downcast,  and  the  head  slightly  bent  upon  the 
breast.  Great  is  Dai^bootz  !  I  don't  think  much  of 
him  as  a  god ;  but  as  mighty  work  of  bronze  art,  as 
a  Colossus,  in  that  way  I  worship  him,  as  I  did  the 
Sphynx,  near  the  Egyptian  pyramids,  and  wish  I 
had  a'  week  to  give  him,  instead  of  this  passing  hour. 
At  Fujisawa  we  left  the  great  royal  highway  of 
Japan,  and  went  into  the  rural  roads,  where  not 
even  a  gin-rick-a  ska  can  go,  only  a  pony,  or  a  coolie- 
carried  cango,  strapped  on  a  pole.  This  is  my  first 
entree  into  rural  Japan  life.  Hitherto  I  have  been 
in  the  cities — now  I  am  in  the  country,  and  my 
admiration  of  Japan  rises  and  rises.  I  thought  once, 
when  on  the  Nile,  that  the  Egyptians,  who  could 
turn  sands  into  gardens,  were  the  great  farmers  of 
the  world ;  but  the  Egyptians  made  no  such  farm- 
ing gardens  as  these.  Proud  as  I  am  of  the  arts, 
sciences,  and  marvellous  doings  of  my  own  country, 
I  blush  when  I  compare  American  farming  with  this ! 
Here,  are  rice-fields  artificially  created,  luxuriant  in 
beauty  now,  terraced  from  hill-side,  up  and  down, 
and  watered  by  the  hill  streams,  or  not  watered,  as 
husbandman  wills.  There,  are  barley-fields,  and 
bean-fields,  and  fields  of  all  sorts  of  Japan  agricul- 


92  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

tural  productions.  Forests  cap  all  the  hill-tops.  It 
is  said,  the  law  or  customs  of  Japan  forbid  a  man  to 
cut  down  a  tree,  unless  forthwith  he  plants  another. 
Hence  these  beautiful  tree-clad  hills  and  hill-sides. 
(Our  tariff  laws  in  America  counsel  an  American 
lumberman  to  cut  down  his  trees  by  making  dear  all 
lumber  from  Canada.)  Two  crops  are  raised  in  Japan 
in  one  year,  even  on  the  rice-fields,  where  the  first 
crop  is  grain.  The  grain  harvest  is  over  in  April  or 
May.  The  rains  come  on  in  June  and  July,  and 
now  the  new  crops  are  up,  and  the  whole  country  is 
one  beautiful  landscape  in  green.  It  is  ravishing  in 
beauty,  and  I  am  happy  in  looking  at  it,  even  with 
my  legs  up  on  the  roof  of  my  cango.  The  turnip  or 
root  crops  will  come  by-and-by.  December  and 
January  are  here  only  the  real  winter  months,'  while 
in  June  and  July,  after  the  barley  harvest  is  over,  it 
is  rain,  rain,  ever  gentle  rain. 

One  reason,  perhaps,  why  Japan  has  superb  farm- 
ing, is  that  the  farmers  here  rank  next  to  the  no- 
bility, only  Koongays  of  the  royal  blood,  or  Daimios 
(princes,  say),  or  Haitamotos  (lords),  above  them. 
All  merchants,  manufacturers,  traders,  artisans,  car- 
penters, etc.,  give  precedence  in  rank  to  these  lords 
of  the  soil.  The  farmers'  houses  I  see  about  here  are 
like  Swiss  cottages,  thatched,  generally,  with  bamboo 
fences  around  them,  but  with  no  fences  on  their 
fields.  The  tools  they  have  would  not  pass  muster 
in  our  land.  Their  hoe  is  more  like  our  shovel  than 
a  hoc,  though  hung  as  a  hoe  on  a  bamboo  handle. 


TRAVELLER'S  LIFE  IN  THE   INTERIOR.  93 

Ploughs  I  have  not  seen,  nor  harrows.  Man  or 
woman  seerns  to  be  plough  and  harrow  here.  The 
flail,  the  regular  old  American  farmers'  flail,  is  their 
threshing  machine.  They  pound  off  the  husks  of  the 
rice  in  a  mortar,  and  man  or  woman  stand  on  a  level, 
and  pump  up  and  down,  the  pounding  pestle  in  the 
mortar. 

But  on,  on,  though  I  would  like  to  scribble  an 
essay  on  farming,  and  expand  upon  the  superb  Jap- 
anese agriculture.  Let  me  say,  before  I  quit  the 
topic,  however,  that  nothing  is  wasted  in  Japan.  !Not 
a  straw,  even,  is  allowed  to  run  idle.  Compost  of  all 
kinds  is  cherished  as  a  gold  mine.  Our  city  sewers, 
which  draw  off  so  much  wealth,  would  break  the 
heart  of  a  Jap  farmer,  seeing  so  much  gold  run  into 
the  sea.  In  pails  and  baskets,  on  men's  shoulders,  is 
carried  for  miles  the  refuse  of  the  great  city,  off  to  the 
fields  of  the  farmer.  These  pails,  on  coolies  shoul- 
ders, do  not  always  sweeten  the  air,  but  they  make 
bountiful  the  fields  and  the  crops. 

Our  coblie-cangos  now  transport  us  from  the  green 
fields  to  the  ocean-side,  and  among  the  surf,  rolling  up 
on  the  sandy  beach.  I  am  in  Newport,  or  Long  Branch, 
or  Cape  May.  The  soothing  sounds  of  the  unceasing 
billows  that  lave  the  feet  and  naked  legs  of  our  cool- 
ies, gladden  us,  while  the  spray,  now  and  then,  dash- 
*es  up  a  little  into  our  bamboo  baskets,  sprinkling  our 
heads,  perhaps,  but  never  reaching  as  high  as  our 
heels.  We  are  going  to  Inositna,  where  is  an  island 
cave.  We  are  "  dumped "  from  otir  cangos  into  a 


94  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

tea-house,  and  while  dinner  is  preparing  we  propose 
to  explore  the  cave.  We  go  over  a  hill  of  temples, 
or  go  around  the  hill  by  water.  We  enter  the  cave 
two  hundred  feet  or  more — an  earthquake-made  cave, 
doubtless,  for  this  I  infer  from  the  way  the  rocks  are 
pitched  together  ;  and  near  the  end,  unless  we  choose 
to  crawl  and  go  further,  is  a  Sintoo  temple,  with  Sin- 
too  priests  to  watch  over  the  holy  shrines,  near  which 
waters  from  above  are  trickling.  We  pay  the  priest, 
of  course,  to  help  to  keep  up  his  paper  candles  and 
wicks  of  oil.  We  look  at  the  devil  he  has  got  chained 
in  there,  and  we  drink  from  the  holy  spring,  one 
draught  of  which  is  to  save  us  from  sickness,  from 
plague,  or  cholera,  or  typhoid.  I  took  three  draughts, 
in  order  to  be  sure,  for  I  need  them  all  in  the  long 
journey  I  am  contemplating. 

The  tea-house  dinner  of  Inosima  was  nothing  re- 
markable. We  borrowed  some  boards  to  make  a 
dinner-table  of,  and  we  squat  again  on  seats,  the  Jap- 
anese use  for  sleeping-pillows.  •  Fish,  fish,  fish,  make 
all  the  meals  here — shell-fish,  crab-fish,  sun-fish, 
devil-fish,  the  funniest  sort  of  fish  and  crabs  I  ever 
saw,  the  like  of  which  we  have  nowhere  in  Amer- 
ica. But  I  did  find  an  old  acquaintance  in  a  clam, 
an  eel,  and  in  a  mackerel,  and  in  a  clawy-looking 
creature,  something  like  a  lobster.  The  whole  air 
here  is  fishy.  There  is  no  sort  of  an  ocean  or  river- 
creature  that  the  Japs  do  not  eat,  even  sharks;  and 
the  uglier  the  creature  is,  the  more  appetizing.  Fish 
markets  in  Japan  are  curiosities,  from  the  oddities, 


TRAVELLER'S  LIFE  IN  THE  INTERIOR.  95 

eccentricities,  frights  of  things  you  see  for  sale  there. 
And  most  of  the  fish  sold  are  not  dead  fish,  but  living, 
jumping,  wriggling  fish.  You  buy  an  eel  all  squirm- 
ing. The  fish-market  men  bring  their  fish  to  market 
in  water-tubs,  and  the  fishermen  keep  a  huge  bamboo 
water  fish-tank  on  each  side  of  the  junks,  into  which 
they  throw  the  creatures  that  they  haul  up,  or  in.  So 
much  is  thought  of  the  fish  here,  that,  on  a  certain 
festival  day,  every  family  that  has  had  a  boy  born 
(not  a  girl)  during  the  year,  hangs  out  a  great 
painted  fish  to  boast  of  it.  If  I  knew  any  thing  of 
ichthyology,  I  would  be  more  particular  in  my  de- 
scription of  the  fish ;  but  I  am  ignorant  all  along, 
you  see.  I  am  not  only  deaf  and  dumb  here,  but 
a  "Know-nothing"  in  most  of  the  ologies  and  ites  a 
traveller  ought  to  know — from  ichthyology  to  ento- 
mology, and  on,  and  on. 

The  tea-house  fish  dinner  over,  we  return  to  Fuji- 
sawa  by  another  and  shorter  route.  Our  gallant 
coolies  clambered  up  the  hill-sides,  and  brought  down 
the  most  beautiful  Japanese  lilies  to  decorate  the 
cangos  of  our  ladies,  so  that  they,  in  these,  their 
bamboo  baskets,  look  like  travelling  flower-gardens. 
The  flora,  on  these  hill-sides  were  exquisitely  beauti- 
ful. Thus  adorned,  we  jogged  on  in  our  cangos ;  and 
as  we  reapproached  Fujisawa,  the  coolies  broke  into 
a  trot ;  and  didn't  they  toss  us  up  and  down  on  their 
shoulders,  as  they  thus  hastened  into  the  village,  amid 
the  greetings  of  their  friends  and  neighbors  ? 

I  ought,  I  suppose,  to  dwell  upon  the  ruins  of 


96  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

Kamakura,  an  old  and  once  grand  Tycoon  city,  and 
now  a  desolation;  but  the  living  things  are  more 
than  I  can  write  of,  and  silence  must  reign,  there- 
fore, over  the  dead.  All  the  valley  was  once  full  of 
shrines  and  temples.  In  one  of  the  old  temples  is  a 
celebrated  stone,  supposed  to  possess  the  property  of 
curing  barrenness  among  women,  and  which,  there- 
fore, the  Japanese  women  frequent  from  all  parts  of 
the  country.  Kamakura  is  the  Babylon  and  Nineveh 
of  Japan.  Every  hill,  every  stream,  every  valley  has 
a  story,  but  what  care  you  for  them  ?  (Mem.,  it  is  a 
glorious  place  for  a  novel  writer  to  make  Japanese 
romances  of  for  the  American  or  British  market.) 
The  yet  brilliant,  the  really  living  and  beautiful 
temple  of  Fujisawa  we  could  not  resist  the  temptation 
to  visit.  The  Mikado  stops  there  when  he  travels. 
We  saw  the  room  (of  screens  and  mats)  where  the 
Mrs.  "  Mikado  "  stopped  one  night,  when  journeying 
here,  and  we  tumbled  down  on  the  mats  where  she 
slept,  in  order,  if  possible,  to  be  inspired  with  some 
of  the  reflected  glory.  The  Buddhist  priests  here 
changed  their  religion  to  Sintoo  (just  like  the  poli- 
ticians), as  the  great  Buddha  went  down  a  little  with 
the  Tycoon,  but  they  now  come  up  with  the  Mikado. 
The  polite  priests  gave  us  tea  (we  gave  them  itzibus). 
They  showed  us  a  kitchen  where  two  thousand  of  the 
Mikado's  followers  were  once  entertained.  By  the 
way,  when  this  awful  Majesty  travels  on  the  Tocaido 
road,  there  is  the  greatest  commotion.  Every  tea- 
house, dwelling-house,  house  or  shop  of  any  kind,  is 


TRAVELLER'S  LIFE   IN  THE  INTERIOR.  97 

boarded  up,  so  that  no  carnal  eye  shall  look  upon 
and  be  blinded  by  the  splendor  of  his  dazzling  glory. 
Every  human  and  beastly  thing  is  put  out  of  the 
way.  The  Tocaido  is  devoted  to  him  and  his  retinue 
only,  and  that  retinue  are  all  the  while  squatting  on 
their  haunches,  or  tumbling  on  their  knees  and  faces, 
as  they  come  within  the  charming  power  of  the  con- 
secrated Majesty. 

All  this,  of  which  I  have  been  writing  here,  we 
"  did  "  in  a  day  and  a  half  only  from  Yokohama ; 
but  we  worked  hard,  and,  on  the  Tocaido,  drove  hard 
our  horses,  returning  not  in  very  early  evening  to 
Yokohama.  All  along  the  road  the  women,  more  or 
less,  the  men  a  little,  the  children  for  the  fun  of  it, 
universally  cried  out,  as  our  carriages  were  passing, 
"Ohio!"  "OMo!"  "OHIO!"— that  is,  "good-morn- 
ing," or,  "  how  do  you  do  ? "  or,  "  anaka ! "  "  an- 
aka  !  "  meaning  "  Mr.,"  or  "  you ; "  and  then,  as  we 
left  them,  "  Sia-ua-ra,  "  sia-na-ra,"  "  good-bye,"  in 
the  sweetest  of  tones.  We  had  no  police,  no  guards ! 
The  people  seemed  so  amiable  that  we  could  hardly 
persuade  ourselves  that  two  British  officers  were 
killed  near  that  route,  not  long  ago.  We  never  felt 
the  least  apprehension.  The  people  seem  too  kind 
ever  to  trouble  any  one. 


LETTER  XI. 

RETURN  TO    YEDO. 

In  Tcdo  a  Second  Time.  —  How  under  a  British  Escort — The  English  Dragoons 
and  Japanese  Takonins. — The  British  Student  Interpreters. — Only  a  Hundred 
Caucasians  among  a  Million  of  Japs. — Paper  Windows. — Uneasy  Sleeping. — 
Two-Sworded  Loafers. — A  Thousand  British  Troops  in  Yokohama. — Cheap 
Shopping  in  Tedo. — 1'ashionable  Biding. 

YEDO,  July  10,  1871. 

IN  Yedo  again !  Could  not  help  it !  Irresistibly 
fascinated  here  by  sights,  shops,  scenes,  etc. !  Japan, 
after  all,  is  the  country  to  stay  in,  as  well  as  to  travel 
over ;  and  so  I  am  once  more  in  the  capital,  as  the 
best  place  to  see  men  and  things.  I  came  up  this 
time,  not  by  the  Tocaido  road,  but  by  the  steamer, 
under  the  British  flag,  which  is  doing  the  Japanese 
coasting-trade,  as  we  do  it  from  Yokohama  to  Naga- 
saki, by  the  U.  S.  Pacific  line  of  steamers,  which 
weekly  run  that  way  to  Shanghai. 

The  British  charge,  Mr.  Adams,  acting  as  minister 
in  the  absence  of  Sir  Henry  Parkes  (who  has  just 
gone  home  to  England  via  San  Francisco),  and  who, 
during  our  civil  war,  was  in  Washington,  attached 
to  the  British  legation,  and  hence  knows  every  thing- 
about  us,  and  kindly  remembers  almost  everybody, 


RETURN  TO  YEDO.  99 

was  polite  enough  to  ask  us  to  pass  some  time  at  the 
British  legation  in  Yedo.  To  show  the  style  in  which 
Great  Britain  keeps  up  her  establishments  in  the  East, 
let  me  add  here,  a  British  mounted  guardsman  await- 
ed us  at  the  steamboat — a  British  mounted  guard  also 
escorting  Mr.  Adams,  next  received  us — and  then  we 
left  for  the  palace  of  the  British  legation,  which  was 
a  former  Daimio's  residence,  with  a  large  escort  of 
mounted  Japanese  Takonins,  who  made  their  swords 
rattle  furiously  as  we  drove  like  Jehus  three  miles 
through  the  narrow  streets  of  Yedo.  A  horse-boy  on 
foot  (the  betto)  cleared  the  streets  for  us,  and  Yedo 
looked  on,  as  it  ever  looks,  with  astonishment,  at  the 
mounted  stalwart  English  sworded  men,  with  good 
revolvers,  and  at  the  British  official,  thus  escorted, 
with  his  two  Americans,  in  a  carriage. 

Life  in  Yedo,  for  Americans  or  Europeans,  must 
be  hard.  There  are  not  a  hundred  of  them,  in  all,  in 
this  great  city — and  only  two  or  three  European,  or 
American  women.  The  British  government  has  at- 
tached to  its  embassy  here  five  or  six  young  educated 
Englishmen,  who  are  studying  Japanese  with  all  their 
might  and  main,  and  making  good  progress,  too.  The 
advantage  of  this  to  the  British  government  is  immense 
— for  it  enables  the  embassy  to  understand  the  people. 
Mr.  Satow,  the  interpreter,  is  a  very  clever  English- 
man, a  scholar,  more  or  less,  in  many  languages  and 
literature,  and  speaks  Japanese  with  fluency  and  ease. 
Hence  he  is  the  prop  of  the  whole  embassy.  I  have 
learned  more  correctly  from  him  of  the  interior  ad- 


100  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

ministration  of  the  Japanese  government  and  society, 
than  I  have  been  able  to  learn  elsewhere.  I  should 
have  written  you,  if  I  had  written  on  the  topic  at  all, 
that  the  Japanese  have  no  newspapers ;  but  I  learn 
from  him  now,  that  each  department  has  its  gazette 
or  bulletin,  publishing  edicts,  regulations,  and  parts 
of  its  correspondence  with  foreign  ministers,  who, 
mercilessly,  are  vexing  the  Japanese  government  on 
"  claims  " — for,  there  being  no  civil  courts  in  Japan, 
all  American  and  British  mercantile  claims,  or  suits, 
are  foisted  npon  the  Yedo  government,  through  the 
foreign  embassies  here.  Mr.  De  Long,  the  American 
Minister,  has  a  dozen  such  cases  on  hand  ;  the  British 
embassy,  of  course,  many  more,  as  the  British  have 
so  much  more  commerce  here  than  the  Americans. 

Sleeping  in  a  city  of  a  million  of  Japs,  thousands 
of  them  low  fellows,  entrusted  with  two  swords,  who 
know  how  to  use  them,  like  lightning,  too,  and  who 
are  so  keen  with  them,  that,  only  three  years  ago, 
two  crazy  fellows  attacked  a  whole  British  retinue, 
cut  at,  or  rather  cut  up,  nine  Englishmen  and  two 
horses,  before  they  were  brought  down — sleeping,  I 
Bay,  with  paper  windows  and  doors  only  (on  the 
ground  floor),  that  any  body  can  open  at  night,  is  not 
as  safe  as  sleeping  in  the  eighth  or  tenth  story  of  a 
New  York  hotel.  But,  nevertheless,  we  slept  "  like 
perfect  tops."  What's  the  use  of  worrying  when  you 
go  abroad  on  the  earth  ?  Better  stay  at  home,  if  your 
mind  is  not  easy  on  such  things,  or  if  your  appetites 
care  for  what  you  eat  or  drink.  These  two-sworded 


RETURN  TO  YEDO.  101 

loafers,  though,  ought  to  be  put  down,  and  must  be 
put  down.  The  government  is  all  ready  to  put  them 
down,  but  is  afraid  so  to  do,  for  the  sword  is  a  badge 
of  honor  here,  a  title  of  nobility — and  a  vagabond 
clings  to  it  more  than  to  life.  If  he  loses  his  sword, 
or  his  sword  is  dishonored,  or  if,  in  an  insult,  his 
sword  does  not  do  its  duty,  the  poor  devil  hari-kari*  s, 
that  is,  rips  up  his  belly.  It  is  glory  to  die  in  Japan 
thus  self-ripped  up ;  but  to  be  hanged,  or  strangled, 
that  is  a  disgrace  everlasting,  and  entails  a  bad  herit- 
age on  'the  family — whereas  to  hari-kari  wipes  out 
all  spots  of  ignominy,  and  makes  a  martyr  of  a  man. 
The  French  minister  has  suggested  to  the  govern- 
ment that,  in  order  not  to  wound  the  honor  of  these 
rascals,  when  the  sword  is  taken  from  them,  a  decora- 
tion be  given  them,  to  show  their  hereditary  claim  to 
honor,  and  the  suggestion  seems  likely  to  be  realized 
in  a  year  or  two.  If  I  ever  come  here  again,  I  hope 
to  see  no  more  of  these  two-sworded  vagabonds.  I 
don't  like  the  looks  of  their  steel,  especially  when 
saki  (rice  whiskey)  is  in  the  owner  of  the  swords. 

The  British  government  has  in  Yokohama,  just 
now,  nearly  a  thousand  British  soldiers,  with  a  ship- 
of-war  or  two,  and  the  French  government  has  a 
large  body  of  marines  on  shore — while  other  nations 
have  only  their  flag  to  protect  them.  True,  the 
British  and  French  have  no  particular  business  in 
arms  here ;  but,  nevertheless,  they  are  a  sort  of  pro- 
tective police  for  Americans  and  Europeans.  It 
seems  to  me,  here  in  Tedo,  more  than  in  Yokohama, 


102  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

• 

that  some  sucli  protection  from  arms  is  necessary, 
where  so  few  Caucasians  are  mingled  among  so  many 
millions  of  Mongolians — more  especially  when  so 
many  thousands  of  them  carry  swords.  I  had  in- 
dulged in  the  apprehension,  from  reading  Allcock  on 
Japan,  that  there  was  to  be  no  safety  in  going  any- 
where in  Japan  without  a  large  armed  escort ;  but, 
in  and  about  Yokohama,  one  seems  as  safe  as  at  home, 
though  at  Tedo  there  is  hot  that  ease. 

I  spent  half  a  day  shopping  here,  and  the  crowds 
all  around  stifled  me  for  want  of  air.  Yokohama  has 
the  curiosities  of  Japan  for  sale,  the  costly  things — 
but  Yedo  only  the  little  funny  things  of  Japan,  the 
toys,  the  mock-dragons,  the  mermaids,  etc.  Tooth- 
powder  costs  three  cents  a  box — the  very  best.  Pow- 
der for  ladies,  two  or  three  cents  a  paper.  Rouge, 
freely  used  by  ladies,  for  the  lips,  one  cent  a  box. 
Handkerchiefs  about  twelve  cents.  Decorated  hair- 
pins, with  tassels,  two,  three,  and  four  cents.  The 
prices  current  of  Yedo  would  amuse  yon.  A  gin- 
rick-a  ska  ride  costs  twenty-five  cents  for  two  and  a- 
half  or  three  miles.  There  are  ten  thousand  of  these 
things  in  Yedo,  costing  from  ten  to  fifteen  dollars 
each,  and  they  have  become  all  the  fashion  within  a 
year  or  two.  Other  parts  of  Japan  are  rapidly  fol- 
lowing this  good  fashion  of  the  capital.  But  these 
cheap  things  do  not  indicate  the  extravagance  of  the 
nobility  or  royalty  of  Japan.  No  people  are  more 
extravagant,  when  they  have  the  dollars  to  spend  or 
spare.  The  Japanese  robes  for  the  high-born  cost  as 


RETURN   TO   YEDO.  103 

much  here  as  in  Paris  or  New  York.  For  the  high 
works  of  art  very  large  sums  are  paid,  and  the  decora- 
tions of  their  one-story  palaces  are  without  reference 
to  cost. 

But  adieu  to  Yedo — and  now  a  final  adieu  to  this 
curious  city.  I  can  not  persuade  myself  it  is  a 
healthy  city,  this  time  of  the  year ;  and  on  that  ac- 
count I  shall  be  glad  to  be  out  of  it.  The  air  is  stifling. 
There  have  been  no  breezes  since  I  came  here.  The 
mosquitoes  have  the  sharpest  sort  of  nippers,  and  the 
punka  is  used  here,  to  keep  cool  during  meals,  and  to 
blow  away  these  creatures. 


LETTEE   XII. 

THINGS  IN  JAPAN. 

"Women  among  the  Japanese. — Their  Position  and  Condition. — Promiscuous  Bath- 
ing-houses.— The  Theatre. — Ticketing  Straw  Shoes  therein. — Jap  Stump 
Orators. — Bamboo  in  Japan. — Japanese  Art — Shopping  in  "  Curio  "  Street. — 
Can  spend  any  Amount  of  Money. — The  Steel  of  Japan. — The  Government  of 
Japan  a  Feudality. — Railroads,  Telegraph,  and  Mint  in  Japan. 

YOKOHAMA,  July  12,  1871. 

THE  status  or  position  of  women  among  the  Jap- 
anese is  more  puzzling  to  a  foreigner  than  any  thing 
else,  and  no  one  looker-on  agrees  as  to  what  that  posi- 
tion is.  The  Mikado  can  have  but  one  wife,  but  is  al- 
lowed, by  law  or  custom,  twelve  concubines ;  Daimios 
and  Hattamatos,  eight ;  men,  with  other  titles,  five  ; 
officers  and  the  soldiers,  two.  But,  say  the  laws  or- 
dered by  Jycyas,  "  The  man  is  not  upright  who  is 
much  given  to  women."  It  is  an  error,  they  tell  me, 
that  the  Japanese  are  indifferent  to  the  respectability 
of  their  wives,  and  that  they  often  prefer  taking  one 
from  among  the  public  courtesans.  But  there  are 
wonderful  exhibitions  of  woman-life  in  Yedo  and 
Yokohama,  such  as  I  cannot  describe — exhibitions 
under  the  sanction  of,  and  controlled  by,  the  Govern- 
ment, and  from  which  the  Government  derives  a 


THINGS  IN  JAPAN.  105 

large  revenue.  The  laws  against  dancing  women, 
etc.,  etc.,  says  Jycyas,  are  not  to  be  administered 
severely,  though  "  they  are  like  caterpillars  or  locusts 
in  the  country."  "  Out  of  regard  for  the  nature  of 
mankind,  their  oifences  are  to  be  lightly  passed  over." 
Hence,  this  species  of  vice  is  made  just  as  public  as  it 
can  be,  outwardly,  decency,  however,  ever  hovering 
over  it.  "Women  are  sold  in  childhood,  temporarily, 
for  a  purpose,  and  many  of  them  afterward  marry 
well  without  dishonor.  But  this  is  a  topic  upon 
which  I  cannot  enlarge. 

The  baths  of  the  great  cities  are  very  peculiar 
institutions.  Men  and  women,  if  they  do  not  exactly 
bathe  together,  come  so  near  it  that  the  difference  is 
not  worth  talking  about.  Everybody  bathes  here, 
and  not  to  be  clean  is  considered  disreputable.  The 
cost  of  bathing  is  cheap  in  Yedo,  about  forty  cents 
every  day  for  a  month.  If  mere  cleanliness  is  god- 
liness, there  are  not  a  more  godly  people  on  earth. 
The  baths  are  warm,  ever  open  to  the  public  eye 
from  the  street,  with  no  disguises  about  them.  They 
are  so  common  that  they  do  not  even  provoke  curi- 
osity. In  Yedo  there  were  many  starers,  staring  at 
me,  when  viewing  the  bathers,  but  not  one  staring 
in.  Nothing  is  thought  of  this  peculiar  mode  of 
bathing.  Nothing  mischievous  seems  to  come  of  it. 
We  must  not  forget  that  what  people  are  accustomed 
to  from  their  youth  up,  does  not  amaze  and  astonish 
them  as  we  strangers  are  thus  astounded. 

I  went  to  the  theatre  the  other  night  in  Kan- 


106  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  EUN. 

agawa — a  big  institution  with  no  seats,  but  with  rails 
to  lean  on.     We  all  squat.     The  natives  leave  their 
penny  and  two-penny  straw  shoes  at  the  door,  near 
the  ticket-box,  and  take  tickets  for  them,  as  we  take 
tickets  for  our  hats  or  cloaks.     It  was  a  very  funny 
sight  to  see  four  or  five  hundred  shoes  ticketed  with 
wooden  straps  attached  to  them,  the  straps  written 
over  in   Japanese   characters.      No  American   can 
stand  a  Japanese  theatre  over  fifteen  minutes.     It  is 
not  like  the  Chinese,  all  "  bang,"  "  bang,"  "  bang," 
"  bang,"  smash,  crash,  thrash,  but  it  is,  if  possible, 
stupider — to  us,  at  least.     I  sallied  out  to  hear  a  Jap 
stump  orator  lecturing,  as  I  suppose  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle did,  in  front  of  the  theatre.     He  blew,  fanned, 
roared,  and  snorted,  as  do  some  of  our  stump  orators. 
I  was  told  he  was  reciting  Japanese  story-history  to 
what  seemed  to  be  a  very  hungry  crowd  of  admirers, 
two  or  three  thousand  in  number.     Scandal  whispers 
that  the  Government  employs  these  orators  to  uphold 
the  Mikado  Government  against  the  Tycoon  discon- 
tents.     Perhaps  so;    we  do  the  same.      The  rain 
began  to  pour  down.     It  rains  here  in  summer  with- 
out the  least  trouble.     We  tried  to  hire  a  gin-ricTc-a 
ska  to  haul  us  home,  but  coolies,  naked  as  they  are, 
won't  work  in  the  rain  (for  fear  of  getting  wet  ?),  and 
so  we  had  to  foot  it  home.     When  a  coolie's  paunch 
is  full  of  rice,  there  is  nothing  to  stimulate  him  to 
earn  more,  especially  late  at  night,  and  when  it  rains. 
Every  country  has  something  peculiar  in  it  that 
every  inhabitant  makes  the  most  of.     Pine  wood  is 


THINGS  IN  JAPAN.  107 

an  American  institution,  as  the  bamboo  is  a  Japan- 
ese institution ;  and  what  would  the  Japanese  do 
without  the  bamboo?  The  handles  of  all  agricul- 
tural instruments  are  made  of  it.  The  gutters  of 
houses  are  of  bamboo.  Paper  is  made  of  bamboo. 
Split  bamboo  makes  curtains  for  houses,  and  screens, 
all  beautiful,  too,  when  colored  or  painted.  There  is 
scarcely  a  human  avocation  that  does  not  'call  into 
requisition  the  bamboo.  Paint  on  houses  is  unknown 
here.  The  bamboo  garnishes  them  up  a  little,  but 
there  is  no  paint  nor  whitewash  where  I  have  been 
travelling.  "Wood  is  left  of  the  natural  color,  and 
waxed  often  to  give  it  polish  and  beauty. 

What  has  really  astounded  me  more,  perhaps, 
than  any  thing  here,  is  art.  The  little  hands  and 
arms  of  the  Japanese  seem  to  fit  them  for  nice  execu- 
tion ;  but  they  would  not  make  the  pretty  screens, 
or  pictures,  or  inlay  copper,  or  lacquer  as  they  do,  if 
taste  did  not  accompany  them.  I  have  just  seen  a 
big  boy,  only  thirteen  years  old,  who  is  painting  for 
foreigners  Japanese  costumes,  and  his  execution  is 
wonderful.  The  paper-hangings  of  Japan  are  un- 
rivalled. I  have  seen  nothing  in  the  world,  that  I 
remember,  which  equals  the  famous  fan  room  of  the 
Hamagoten  in  Yedo.  We,  doubtless,  got  all  our 
ideas  of  beautifying  paper  from  Japan.  The  bronze 
work  of  this  people  is  wonderful,  as  well  as  their 
lacquer.  They  put  years  of  work  often  into  a  Dai- 
mio's  room.  When  we  of  English  descent  were 
barbarians  in  art,  these  people  were  all  they  are  now. 


108  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

We  see  bells  and  bronzes  and  inlaid  work  hundreds 
of  years  old.  The  iron  and  steel  work  of  Japan,  too, 
is  far  in  advance  of  many  "  civilized  "  nations.  The 
famous  Damascus  steel,  the  renowned  Toledo  blade, 
does  not  surpass,  if  equal,  the  steel  sword  of  the 
Japanese  officers.  It  may  not  bend  as  the  Damascus 
blade,  but  it  has  a  strength  and  tenacity  beyond  it. 
The  old  armor  of  the  old  Japanese  knights  is  won- 
derful work  for  the  age  and  time.  Their  work  in 
silk  and  satin  is  wonderful,  and  also  in  crape.  These 
people,  farming  people  too,  who  use  only  the  old 
spinning-wheel  and  the  reel  of  our  grandmothers, 
who  have  no  Lyons  or  Aubusson  looms,  turn  out  real 
works  of  art  in  embossed  silks  and  satins.  I  tell  the 
administrators  of  Government  here,  if  they  will  only 
send  out  their  artists  to  study  and  copy  Lyons  fash- 
ions, or  to  imbue  themselves  with  European  tastes, 
their  silks  and  satins  and  crapes  will  command  the 
markets  of  the  world.  What  they  most  want  to 
please  us  now  is  the  knowledge  of  our  caprices  and 
fashions  and  tastes.  From  their  long  non-intercourse 
with  the  world  they  have  not  advanced  in  all  that, 
and  it  is  hard  to  persuade  them  to  do  aught  save 
what  their  great-great-grandfathers  and  mothers  were 
brought  up  to  do.  The  (foreign)  Curio  Street  of 
Yokohama  is  a  gallery  of  art.  I  could  spend  days 
there,  if  I  had  time,  to  study  them  up.  A  people 
who  have  their  capacities  can  be  taught  to  do  any 
thing,  and  the  marvel  is,  when  they  learned  it  or 
who  taught  them.  Is  not  art  inborn  ? 


THINGS  IN  JAPAN.  109 

But  shopping  in  Curio  Street  is  an  unutterable 
bore.  The  price  asked  for  any  thing  is  no  sign  of 
what  you  can  get  it  for.  Two  or  three  shops  only, 
it  is  said,  have  fixed  prices,  and  hence  foreigners 
largely  patronize  them.  Elsewhere  you  sit  and  hag- 
gle and  bid,  and  waste  hours  of  precious  time. 
About  one-half  of  what  is  asked  may  be  set  down  as 
the  fair  price ;  but  this  being  understood  the  Jap 
shop-keeper  triples  often  on  that.  Knowing  nothing 
of  the  real  value  of  things  or  real  cost,  and  but  little 
of  their  merit — as  in  lacquer  ware — there  can  be  the 
greatest  deception  practised,  and  hence  we  hag- 
gle at  random — are  laughed  at  by  the  Japs,  and 
laugh  at  ourselves  in  concord  with  them.  The  cus- 
tom-houses in  America  will  think  we  are  all  cheats 
in  our  invoices,  even  when  they  are  ~bona,  fide — all 
Japanese  work  being  comparatively  cheap,  from  the 
low  price  of  labor.  What  is  dear  at  home  is  very, 
very  cheap  here.  The  profits  in  San  Francisco  and 
New  York,  on  Japanese  curiosities,  must  be  three 
and  four  hundred  per  cent.,  and  hence  their  infre- 
quent sale  there. 

The  Government,  or  the  form  of  Government 
which  this  country  has,  it  is  almost  impossible  for  a 
foreigner  to  understand."  The  Mikado,  or  emperor, 
is  the  head  to  whom  all  the  real  estate  of  the  country 
belongs,  and  from  whom  spring  all  landed  titles,  such 
as  they  are.  And  then  there  are  Koongays,  with  the 
Mikado  blood  in  their  veins ;  the  Daimios,  or  Yedo 
nobility ;  the  Hattamato,  or  the  lower  class  of  Dai- 


HO  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

x 

mios.  These  people  now  make  up  the  Government 
of  Japan,  which  is  the  old  feudal  system  of  Great 
Britain  and  Europe  eight  hundred  years  ago.  These 
feudal  lords  were  in  frequent  collision  up  to  1600, 
since  which  time  they  have  had  tolerable  peace,  save 
in  the  recent  rebellion  when  the  Mikado  overthrew 
the  Tycoon.  The  Government  was  a  dual  Govern- 
ment up  to  the  arrival  of  Commodore  Perry,  seven- 
teen years  ago,  when  differences  began  to  arise 
between  the  Mikado  and  Tycoon  respecting  the  ad- 
mission of  foreigners. 

The  M'kado  did  not  assent  at  first  to  the  treaties 
of  Perry  and  Townsend  Harris,  and  parties  were 
created  by  these  differences  of  opinion,  which  led  to 
the  overthrow  of  the  Tycoon  who  made  the  treaties. 
We  have,  therefore,  now  a  Mikado  Government, 
risen  into  power  on  the  overthrow  of  treaties,  and 
yet  obliged  by  foreign  arms  to  uphold  and  maintain 
those  treaties.  These  treaties  expire  the  coming 
year,  and  there  will  be  much  difficulty  in  renewing 
them.  The  spectacle  of  a  feudality  of  the  middle 
ages  now,  in  1871,  is  a  novel  and  interesting  exhibi- 
tion to  the  American  eye.  We  are  taken  back,  as  it 
were,  into  Europe  eight  hundred  years  ago,  and  see 
the  life  our  British  ancestors  Jed,  with  their  serfs, 
villains,  and  retainers.  But  I  must  not  weary  you 
by  writing  a  treatise  on  Government. 

The  Japanese  are  making  great  advancement  in 
certain  kinds  of  our  civilization.  They  have  war- 
ships like  ours,  which  it  is  doubtful  if  they  know  how 


THINGS  IN  JAPAN. 

to  handle.  They  have  a  mint  organized  like  ours, 
but  their  currency,  like  ours,  is  only  paper  money — 
oblong  pieces  of  pasteboard  printed  on,  in  Japanese. 
They  have  a  telegraph  from  Yokohama  to  Yedo, 
which  I  have  used  two  or  three  times  and  found  as 
reliable  as  any  in  the  United  States.  English  mes- 
sages are  translated  and  transmitted  in  Japanese. 
They  are  also  constructing  a  railroad  from  Yoko- 
hama to  Yedo,  some  twenty-four  miles,  which  the 
English  engineers  are  making  a  ,very,  very  costly 
work — and  this  will  cost  so  much  that  it  will  frighten 
the  Japanese  from  <  extending  their  lines  over  the 
island  as  they  were  contemplating.  Next  year  a 
telegraph  from  Nagasaki  and  Yedo  to  Shanghai  will 
connect  Japan  and  China,  and  enable  even  Ameri- 
cans, if  they  will  pay  for  it  heavily,  to  communicate 
with  Yedo.  The  telegraph,  by  the  way,  has  been 
extended  over  Russia  in  Asia  to  the  border  custom- 
house of  Russia  and  China,  some  six  or  seven  hun- 
dred miles  only  from  Pekin,  and  in  a  year  or  two  the 
communication  will  be  completed  from  Pekin,  so 
that  St.  Petersburg  and  Pekin  can  interchange  ideas. 
This  will  be  a  rival  to  the  English  lines  on  the  Indian 
seas. 


LETTER   XIII. 

ON  THE  JAPAN  SEAS. 

Adieu  to  Yokohama.— The  Foreigners  and  their  Life  there.— The  All  Sorts  of  Clothes 
of  the  East. — The  Japanese  Passengers  on  board  the  Costa  Rica. — A  Japanese 
Prince  and  his  Ketinue  on  board. — A  Typhoon  dodged. — Frightful  Loss  of  Life  and 
Property. —  An  Earthquake  felt. —  Curiosity  satisfied. —  Motley  Cargo  of  the 
Costa  Eica.— Butcher's  Meat  called  Fowl 

JAPAN  SEAS,  Judy  13,          ) 
On  Board  Steamer  Costa  Eiea.     (Under  United  States  Flag.)  J 

ADIEU  to  Yokohama,  and  all  its  agreeable  Ameri- 
can population.  "We  have  been  welcomed  not  only 
as  countrymen,  but  as  friends,  almost  as  relatives. 
A  New  Yorker  cannot  but  be  at  home  here  ;  for  the 
town  abounds  with  New  Yorkers.  I  see  the  "  Brook- 
lyn Hotel,"  the  "  New  York  Hotel,"  too,  and  I  eat 
meat  from  the  "  Fulton  Market."  The  flag  of  the 
United  States  on  the  Pacific  mail  steamers  dots  the 
harbor.  There  are  only  about  one  thousand  Caucasi- 
ans in  Yokohama  (exclusive  of  the  military),  with  a 
Mongolian  population,  including  Kanagawans,  of 
some  sixty  or  seventy  thousand,  and  all  the  while 
rapidly  increasing.  There  are  five  or  six  little  daily 
journals  in  Yokohama,  rich  in  advertisements,  but 
poor  enough  in  news.  One  of  these  was  sold  the 
other  day,  I  see,  for  twenty  thousand  dollars.  As  to 
news  here,  foreign  news,  there  is  not  enough  to  keep 


ON   THE  JAPAN  SEAS.  113 

a  journalist  alive.  The  wonder  is  that  all  do  not  die 
of  ennui.  The  writers,  of  course,  know  nothing  of 
Japanese,  can  therefore  gather  up  no  police  reports, 
have  no  thrilling  intelligence — no  court  records, 
nothing  of  etiquette  in  Yedo  —  nothing  from,  the 
Provincial  Princes.  All  we  have  is  the  editorial 
essay,  and  the  everlasting,  but  all-important,  prices 
current  of  rice,  silks,  sheetings,  shirtings,  freights, 
rates  of  exchange.  But  these  are  what  men  come  to 
Japan  for  (to  get  rich,  and  then  go  home),  and  hence 
nothing  is  so  important  to  them.  The  Caucasians 
live  beautifully  here,  many  of  them  near  their  places 
of  business,  right  on  the  open  Bay,  and  others,  on  the 
bluffs  above ;  and  five  thousand  dollars  here  in  the 
way  of  living  goes  farther  than  twenty  thousand  dol- 
lars in  ISTew  York  City.  They  shut  up  shop  at  four ; 
drive  or  ride  till  seven,  and  at  seven  and  a  half  sit 
down  to  dinner,  their  evening  amusement,  after 
which,  and  a  long  sitting  at  dinner,  they  go  to  bed. 
Dinner  is  the  great  event  of  the  day.  Tiffin  at  one 
o'clock,  as  they  call  "  lunch,"  the  intermediate  event 
— and  therefore,  the  most  is  made  of  dinner.  No 
theatres,  no  opera  for  Europeans,  no  libraries,  no- 
where to  spend  their  evenings,  they  frantically  dine, 
and  unhealthily  sleep  after  such  dinners,  with  Chi- 
nese almost  always  for  their  cooks.  The  Chinese 
take  to  all  trades,  and  Chinese  make  the  best  house- 
servants  here — the  Japanese  not  well  taking  to  that 
sort  of  thing,  save  as  nurses  for  children. 

One  of  the  curiosities  of  the  East  is  the  all  sorts 


A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

of  clothes  everybody  (of  the  male  sex)  wears.  I  am 
not  writing  now  of  the  nature-clad  Japanese ;  "but 
they  often  get  cast-off  European  clothes,  which,  when 
put  on,  amuse  one  to  see.  There's,  a  droll  fellow, 
with  nothing  on  but  old  trowsers  and  straw  shoes ! 
There,  is  another,  with  red  European-made  shoes,  yel- 
low frock-coat,  Calcutta  hat  (a  hat  branching  all  over 
the  head,  forward  and  backward  only  though,  and 
stuffed  so  thick  with  light  stuff,  that  no  sun's  rays 
can  pierce  through  it),  spectacles  on,  too,  and  look- 
ing as  wise  as  if  some  great  philosopher.  There,  is 
another  yet,  with  a  frock-coat  only,  no  shirt,  no 
trowsers,  no  hat,  no,  nothing  else !  "When  European 
fashions  are  taken  by  the  Japanese,  they  rush  into 
them,  as  do  the  Central  American  negroes,  or  the 
]^orth  American  Indians.  But  the  hats  of  the  Euro- 
peans in  this  country  are  of  the  oddest,  drollest,  most 
variegated  kind  you  can  well  imagine.  I  bring  here 
my  American  head  cover,  a  poor  concern,  under  a 
Japanese  sun,  or  in  a  Japanese  rain.  I  cover  it  all 
over  with  white  linen,  and  a  long  veil  down  the  neck, 
to  shed  off  the  hot  sun  rays.  Another  sports  a  big  Cal- 
cutta, English-invented  hat,  made  in  imitation  of  the 
Turk's  sash,  wrapped  round  his  head  or  cap  (fez)  on 
a  hot  day,  also  to  ward  off  the  sun's  rays.  Another 
yet,  fresh  come,  to  look  jaunty,  sports  his  American 
straw  hat.  In  short,  we  have  all  sorts  of  hats  human 
ingenuity  has  invented,  and  hence,  we  look  like  so 
many  birds  of  passage,  if  not  of  prey. 

But,  once  more,  adieu  to  Yokohama.     I  am  on 


ON  THE  JAPAN  SEAS.  115 

board  the  United  States  mail  steamer  Costa  Eica, 
running  between  Yokohama  and  Shanghai  (China), 
and  touching  at  the  Japanese  ports  of  Hiogo  and 
Nagasaki.  The  ocean  is  as  quiet  as  an  inner  lake. 
This  is  the  rainy  season,  and  bless  the  rainy  season, 
for  the  clouds,  ever  overhanging,  keep  off  the  hot 
rays  of  the  sun.  We  Americans  ought  to  be  pro- 
foundly grateful  to  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Com- 
pany, for  this  weekly  line  of  steamers  to  Shanghai, 
for  it  spreads  the  American  name,  and  shows  the 
American  flag  far  and  wide  in  these  seas.  It  alone 
offsets,  if  not  equals,  British  power  and  British  fame 
here.  We  have  a  Prince  on  board,  a  real  live 
Japanese  Prince  of  countless  generations,  of  the 
purest  blood,  with  ten  of  his  two-sworded  retainers 
as  body-guard — a  Prince,  too,  of  boundless  green 
acres — but  our  Yankee-born  captain,  insensible  fel- 
low to  blood,  seems  to  think  nothing  of  it.  He  car- 
ries Princes,  he  says,  every  trip.  "  Princes  are  noth- 
ing to  him."  Only  a  few  years  ago,  these  Princes 
all  went  to  the  Yedo  Capitol  with  thousands  of 
two-sworded  retainers  in  their  train,  to  whom  every- 
body bowed  prostrate  in  dust,  as  they  passed  by  in 
norimons  (sedan  chairs),  while  now,  they  go  on  a 
Yankee  steamer,  under  a  Yankee  flag,  with  Cape 
Cod,  or  Taunton  (Good  Lord !)  captains.  We  have 
enough  of  these  two-sworded  fellows  on  board  now 
to  take  the  steamer  if  they  wished  to,  but,  says  the 
captain,  "  What  if  they  did  ?  what  could  they  do 
with  the  elephant  if  they  ha,dvit  ?"  Sure,  they  are 


116  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

well-behaved  men.  We  have  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
five  passengers,  all  Japanese  but  some  six  or  seven. 
Some  forty-five  of  them  are  cabin  passengers,  others 
in  the  steerage.  I  have  just  been  visiting  them. 
They  sleep  on  mats,  not  in  bunks,  as  the  Chinese 
passengers  sleep,  but  on  their  very  peculiar  wooden 
Japanese  pillow — and  with  their  womeu  all  stretched 
out  promiscuously  beside  them.  They  must  be  the 
best  behaved  people  in  the  world. 

Magnificent  green  hills  we  are  passing,  clad  with 
verdure  to  the  ocean  edge.  The  everlasting  clouds 
and  fogs  of  summer  spread  one  universal  green.  I 
must  repeat,  it  is  the  prettiest  land  I  ever  was  in. 
England,  in  May,  even,  does  not  equal  it.  They 
do  not  know  how  to  farm  and  to  terrace  in  England, 
as  do  the  Japs  here.  Many  junks  we  are  passing ; 
more  fishing-vessels.  Their  torches  at  night  light  up 
the  sea.  Torches,  they  tell  me,  lure  fish.  I  am 
crediting  about  all  they  tell  me,  though,  "they  tell 
me,"  like  Dame  Rumor,  is  at  times  an  awful  liar. 
The  light-houses,  too,  are  on.  every  prominent  point 
of  the  coast.  Thanks  to  the  Japanese,  for  thus  light- 
ing up  the  shores.  They  light  these  houses  well, 
keep  them  well  supplie(^with  oil,  and  their  lights  are 
as  reliable  as  ours.  Their  innumerable  junks  profit 
by  them,  as  well  as  our  steamers. 

We  have  just  dodged  a  typhoon !  The  steamer 
preceding  us,  on  which  we  were  to  go,  took  it,  and 
weathered  it  at  sea  ;  but  here  in  Hiogo,  where  I  am 
writing  now,  the  wreck  .and  rack  are  frightful.  Six 


ON  THE  JAPAN   SEAS.  117 

steamers  high  and  dry,  three  of  them  in  utter  ruing, 
are  on  the  quay  of  Kobe.  The  ruins  of  junks  line 
the  shores.  The  sea  wall  (cut  stone)  is  knocked  all 
to  pieces.  A  British  bark,  with  almost  all  on  board, 
is  turned  upside  down  on  the  shore.  Yerandas,  bun- 
galows, godowns  (warehouses),  are  knocked  up,  or 
over.  The  lost  of  property  has  been  very  great,  and 
the  loss  of  life  deplorable.  The  Hiogo  News,  our 
English  newspaper,  says : 

"  Between  two  hundred  and  fifty  and  three  hundred  houses 
have  heen  destroyed  along  the  shore,  and  six  hundred  junks 
reported  lost.  On  one  junk  two  hundred  lost." 

And  all  along  the  shore  for  one  hundred  miles, 
the  rumor  of  the  loss  of  Japanese  property  and  life  is 
frightful.  One  harbor,  near  here,  is  all  filled.  Every 
village  between  here  and  Osaca  (a  great  city,  fifteen 
miles  off)  is  swept  away.  From  one  thousand  to  six 
thousand  lives  have  been  lost ;  but  there  are  no 
Japanese  newspapers,  nor  news-gatherers.  One  can 
traly  guess  from  what  Dame  Rumor  reports.  Thank 
the  Lord,  we  are  all  safe. 

Every  traveller,  of  course,  wants  to  know  what  a 
typhoon  or  cyclone  is.  My  curiosity  is  amply  satis- 
fied, now,  though  where  I  was,  was  only  a  gale.  My 
earthquake  curiosity  too  is  satisfied.  I  felt  a  little  one 
— was  shaken  up  in  a  little  one  at  Fujisawa  about  two 
weeks  gone  by.  There,  in  1870,  in  May  alone,  were  a 
hundred'  and  seventy  shakes.  I  am  content  with  the 
little  one  I  felt,  only  a  little  one,  but  it  shook  enough 
for  me.  This  country  is  all  volcanic.  Its  great  moun- 


118  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

tain,  the  adoration  and  admiration  of  Japan,  Fusiya- 
ma,  is  of  volcanic  birth.  The  soil  is  all  volcanic.  Hence 
its  wealth.  I  shall  feel  a  little  easier  as  to  shakes  when 
I  am  on  the  other  side  of  the  Yellow  Sea — for  there 
are  several  sputtery  hills  and  sulphur  fountains  here- 
about. But  there  is  no  chance  of  dodging  the  chance 
of  being  hit  by  typhoons  for  three  thousand  miles 
yet.  In  the  distance  is  the  city  of  Osaca,  where  the 
Japanese  Government  have  just  established  a  Mint. 
Governor  Ito,  who  was  in  Washington  last  winter, 
examining  the  money  -  making  machinery  at  the 
Treasury,  and  afterward  the  Mint  in  Philadelphia, 
is  in  charge  of  it,  and  has  organized  it  on  the  systems 
learned  there.  Governor  Ito  is  well  fitted  for  this 
position,  as  he  possesses  a  clear  business  head,  united 
with  great  financial  ability. 

The  Costa  Bica  here  (Hiogo)  is  loading  for  Shang- 
hai, with  all  sorts  of  the  odds  and  ends  of  things. 
"We  are  taking  baskets  upon  baskets  of  camphor  on. 
board — good  to  keep  off  the  moths.  (I  hope  it  will 
keep  off  fleas.)  The  captain  dare  not  stow  it  between 
decks,  for  it  would  endanger  the  flavor  of  teas,  here- 
after to  come.  We  are  taking  in  bales  of  isinglass ; 
deers'  horns  in  hundreds  of  bundles,  sea-weed  (our 
common  sea-weed)  for  the  Chinese  to  eat !  (they  love 
it)  and  liche  de  mer.  There  are  a  dozen  steamboats 
in  port  now,  several  of  them  for  sale  to  the  Japs,  who 
have  been  pretty  well  bitten  by  American  and  Brit- 
ish boats.  Two  of  them  have  been  once  old  gun- 
boats of  ours.  There  are  about  three  hundred  for- 


ON  THE   JAPAN   SEAS.  119 

eigners  here.  The  town  is  pretty,  or  was  before 
the  typhoon,  that  is,  what  is  left  of  it  is  pretty,  and 
the  green  hills  over  it  are  pretty,  too.  It  is  quite  a 
place  for  a  new  cattle  trade,  that  is  opening.  The 
Japs,  I  have  written  you,  abhor  butchers — won't  let 
them  enter  the  houses,  and  never  eat  cattle  !  Beef 
now  is  sold  to  them  by  these  butchers  under  the 
name  of  fowl.  The  Prince  of  Satzuma,  who  keeps  up 
an  army  of  fifteen  thousand  men  in  European  style, 
gives  his  soldiers  three  rations  a  week  on  this 
"  fowl ; "  and  he  introducing  the  meat  fashion,  the  de- 
sire for  eating  it  is  becoming  general.  But  we  are 
off,  and  adieu. 


LETTEE  XIY. 

ON  THE  INLAND  SEA   OF  JAPAN. 

The  Beautiftil  Inland  Sea  of  Japan. — Luxurious  Travelling1. — Prince  Hizen. — Vampire 
Cat— Bay  of  Nagasaki.— The  Oldest  European  Settlement.— The  Koman  Cath- 
olic Priests. — Pappenhurg  Island. — Thousands  of  Christians  thrown  from  the 
Precipice. — The  Faith  of  Koman  Catholic  Missionaries. — Street  Scenes  in 
Nagasaki. — Needle  Making. — Porcelain  Painting. — Begging  Buddhist  Priest. — 
Street  Actors. — Japanese  Confectionery. — Japanese  "Woman's  Toilet-Box. — Ke- 
ceipt  for  Blacking  the  Teeth. — Final  Leave  of  Japan. 

NAGASAKI,  July  17,  1871. 

THIS  Japan,  I  re-declare,  is  the  most  beautiful 
country  in  the  world — and  I  have  now  seen  a  good 
part  of  the  world.  I  have  come  down  through  the 
Inland  Sea,  by — what  shall  I  say  to  give  an  Ameri- 
can an  idea  of  it  ? — through  Lake  Champlain,  say, 
through  Lake  George,  the  Thousand  Islands  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  the  Rocky  Mountain  ranges  and  the 
Columbia  River  in  Oregon,  Puget's  Sound  in  Wash- 
ington Territory,  etc.,  etc.  There  is  nothing  that 
surpasses  it,  scarcely  any  thing  that  equals  it,  in  our 
country.  The  Scotchman  here  has  his  Loch  Lomond, 
or  Loch  Katrine ;  the  Swiss,  his  Genevan  Lake ;  the 
Englishman,  Westmoreland ;  the  Irishman,  his  Kil- 
larncy.  We  have  been  sailing  for  twenty-four  hours, 
ten  miles  an  hour,  through  a  succession  of  changeable 
scenery,  an  idea  of  which  you  can  only  have  by 


ON  THE  INLAND  SEA  OF  JAPAN.  121 

bearing  in  mind  the  home  beautiful  spots  I  have 
named.  The  hills  are  covered  to  the  very  tops  with 
the  liveliest  green,  or  these  hills  are  terraced  gener- 
ally with  garden  spots,  one  overhanging  the  other. 
Along  many  of  the  hills,  and  on  the  very  summits, 
are  strings  of  lofty  trees,  so  trained  as  to  make  a 
seeming  continuous  march  of  forest  to  forest  over 
every  hill-top. 

There  is  no  more  luxurious  travelling  on  earth 
than  this  down  the  Inland  Sea  of  Japan.  True,  a 
hot  sun  is  over  our  heads,  often  clouded,  though,  and 
affording  a  canopy.  We  are  on  the  upper  deck,  on 
the  bow  of  the  steamer,  under  ample  awnings,  in 
bamboo  chairs,  made  purposely  to  fit  the  human 
(extended)  form.  The  moving  air  fans  us.  Ice,  all 
the  way  from  Boston,  abounds  for  us.  "We  can  have 
iced  tea  in  abundance,  or,  if  we  will,  mint-juleps, 
even.  The  unknown  Prince,  whom  I  spoke  of  in  a 
former  letter  as  a  fellow-passenger,  turns  out  to  be 
the  Prince  of  Hizen,  one  of  the  eighteen  chief 
Daimios  of  Japan,  on  his  way  to  his  estates  near 
Nagasaki,  where,  as  owner  of  coal  mines,  if  judi- 
ciously managed,  he  is  one  of  the  richest  princes  in 
the  world.  I  showed  him,  in  "Tales  of  Japan," 
published  in  English,  a  wood-cut  of  "  the  Yampire 
Cat  of  Nabeshima,"  in  which  his  family  figured 
many  years  ago.  The  story  is  of  a  Prince  of  Hizen 
who  had  in  his  house  a  lady  of  rare  beauty,  whom  a 
large  cat  throttled,  then  taking  her  form,  and  making 
the  Prince  believe  she  (the  cat)  was  the  real  beauty. 


122  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

The  Prince  kept  on  in  love  with  the  cat,  but  the  cat 
sucked  all  his  life  away.  The  beautiful  woman  was 
at  last  found  out  to  be  a  vampire  cat,  when  a  battle 
ensued,  and  the  cat,  worsted  in  the  fight,  re-turned 
cat,  and  escaping  from  the  fighting  room,  was  shot  by 
the  Prince's  retainers.  The  Prince  laughed  heartily 
over  the  picture,  and  seemed  to  enjoy  the  fable. 

The  Bay  of  Nagasaki  is,  if  possible,  more  beauti- 
ful than  the  scenery  of  the  Inland  Sea.  The  hills 
rise  boldly  from  the  water's  edge,  and  land-lock  the 
harbor.  Everything  here  is  fresh  and  silent  now,  as 
if  there  were  not  some  seventy  or  eighty  thousand 
human  beings  on  the  hill-sides.  The  sun  had  just 
gone,  as  we  steamed  inward,  and  people  in  these 
lands  retire  early  to  their  mats,  and  rise  early  to 
greet  the  morning  sun. 

I  sallied  forth  with  that  morning  sun  to  see  men 
and  things,  as  then,  they  are  best  to  be  seen.  The 
pomegranate  and  palm,  the  persimmon  and  bamboo, 
are  here.  There  is  a  strange  commingling  of  the 
temperate  and  torrid  zones.  Side  by  side,  oaks 
and  trees,  and  feathery  bamboos  and  palms,  flourish 
in  equal  beauty.  The  sober  hues  of  the  north  are 
mingled  with  the  more  vivid  verdure  of  the  tropics. 
The  brown  fish-hawk,  swooping  down  from  the  hills 
upon  his  finny  prey,  or  poised  in  the  air,  makes  the 
hills  echo  with  his  wild  cry. 

Nagasaki  is  the  oldest  European  settlement  in 
Japan,  and  yet  there  are  said  to  be  not  over  one 
hundred  and  fifty  Europeans  there  now,  which  means 


ON  THE  INLAND  SEA  OF  JAPAN.  123 

Americans,  too,  for  all  here  bear  one  name.  The 
Dutch  were  pent  up  here  for  two  centuries  in  the 
little  Island  of  Decima,  and  allowed  only  once  a  year 
to  visit  a  neighboring  hill,  and  then  under  a  strong 
guard.  Xavier  and  his  followers  gained  a  footing 
here  in  the  sixteenth  century,  to  propagate  the  Holy 
Catholic  faith.  The  galleons  of  Portugal  and  Spain, 
centuries  ago,  were  here.  Princer  went  from  here 
to  make  their  obeisance  in  Home  to  the  Pope.  But 
a  cruel  Tycoon,  alarmed  by  the  triumphs  of  the 
Church  over  the  people,  fulminated  an  edict  against 
all  foreigners,  shut  up  the  Dutch  in  Decima,  and 
then  pitched  thousands  of  Christians  who  would  not 
repent  (backwards),  from  the  rocky  cliffs  of  Pappen- 
berg  Island  into  the  ocean  below.  Never  since  that 
period,  when  the  Roman  Catholics  may  have  been 
said  to  rule  the  millions  of  Japan — ruling  them  more, 
perhaps,  by  their  science,  learning,  and  arts,  than  by 
the  force  of  the  Bible — have  any  Christians  been 
permitted  as  missionaries  to  enter  Japan,  save  in  the 
four  open  consular  ports.  The  rulers  of  Japan,  even 
now,  are  energetically  resisting  all  the  representations 
and  claims  of  Catholic  and  Protestant  foreign  minis- 
ters for  "  toleration ; "  and  it  is  the  very  last  thing, 
in  the  new  treaty  to  be  made  in  1872,  that  the 
Japanese  will  yield.  A  French  priest,  passenger 
with  me,  mourns  plaintively  over  the  blows  his 
church  has  received  both  in  China  and  Japan,  but  is 
sure,  nevertheless,  the  day  is  soon  coming  when  God 
will  open  the  highways  and  waters  to  the  ministers 


124  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

of  the  Propaganda  fides  in  Rome.  ISTor  is  there  any 
reason,  if  the  masses  of  the  people  were  permitted  to 
be  approached,  why  all  should  not  become  Christians 
— for  the  mere  outward  differences  between  the 
worship  of  the  idol  god,  Buddha,  and  the  Catholic 
altars,  seem  slight,  while  the  Buddhist  heaven,  as 
defined  in  the  classic  books,  is  almost  our  God.  This 
very  seeming  similarity,  though,  makes  the  Buddhist 
priests  bitter  in  their  opposition,  and  they  have  of 
late  had  force  enough  with  the  Government  to 
abstract  some  thousands  of  Catholics  (the  cherished 
relics  of  the  old  Catholic  missionaries,  that  have  in 
secret  handed  down  their  faith)  to  places  unknown, 
but  probably  to  the  mines  of  Yeso,  there  to  work 
out  a  wretched  existence. 

The  streets  of  Nagasaki  would  afford  to  me  end- 
less interest,  if  I  only  had  time  to  explore  them,  for 
every  thing  is  done  out  of  doors.  There  are  the  manu- 
facturers, by  hand,  of  needles,  and  the  needles  are  so 
much  better  4han  ours,  that  the  Japanese  won't  buy 
ours.  There,  too,  are  the  workers  on  lacquer,  paint- 
ing with  it  on  porcelain  vases — work  exquisitely 
done  by  men  squatting  on  their  haunches  and  nearly 
naked.  There  is  a  little  wheel,  spinning  cotton,  that 
grandma  is  lazily  turning — she,  too,  squatting,  and 
naked  to  her  waist.  Here  is  a  splendid  porcelain 
warehouse,  that  my  eyes  water  to  see,  and  that/ 1 
would  buy  the  whole  of,  if  I  had  money  enough.  For 
one  pair  of  vases,  some  eight  feet  high,  six  hundred 
dollars  is  wanted.  The  bamboo  cups,  the  egg-shell 


ON  THE  INLAND  SEA  OF  JAPAN.  125 

saucers,  I  would  buy  scores  of  them,  if  they  would 
bear  packing  in  a  trunk,  and  stand  the  rattle  trunks 
have  here — on  poles  and  bullocks'  backs ;  for  there 
is  only  one  road  for  wheels  in  Japan — the  Tocaido — 
the  rest  for  cangos,  norimons,  ponies,  and  bullocks, 
and  coolies,  with  the  poles,  who  bring  on  their  backs, 
loads  fifty  miles  to  market.  There  are  plays  going 
on,  even  now,  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The 
actors  daub  their  faces  all  over  with  white  powder, 
rouge  their  lips,  tattoo  their  bodies  with  paint,  and 
then  "  go  at  it "  before  any  crowd  they  can  collect  in 
the  streets.  The  streets  are  narrow,  and  so  all  walk- 
ers must  go  through  the  theatrical  crowd.  I  fol- 
lowed a  big  bullock,  heavily  laden,  and  the  crowd 
marvelled  not  over  him,  but  over  me  set  up  a  jolly 
howl — the  bullock  they  knew ;  the  wandering  Yankee 
was  unknown,  and  the  jokes  they  cracked  at  my  ex- 
pense seemed  to  be  many.  There,  come  three  Buddhist 
priests,  collecting  alms,  rattling  little  bells  on  a  pole, 
praying  for  tempos  or  cash,  and  then  handing  out  a 
contribution-box.  Everybody  that  had  any  thing 
seemed  to  give  a  little.  I  followed  their  example. 
Was  this  right,  or  wrong?  Am  I  a  heathen,  or  not? 
But,  on  the  sands  of  the  Dead  Sea  (in  Palestine),  I 
tumbled  down,  with  my  head  toward  Mecca,  just  as 
the  Bedouins  did — having  long  ago  learned,  even  on 
the  Adriatic,  "  when  among  the  Romans  to  do  as 
the  Romans  do."  There,  is  a  confectionery  shop. 
The  Japanese  are  as  fond  of  candies  as  are  our 
people.  They  make  just  what  you  want.  I  asked 


126  -A-  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

for  a  fish  and  got  it — a  respectable-sized  fisli — for 
two  or  three  cents,  with  sugar  enough  in  it  to  make 
a  man  sick  a  week.  A  merchant,  who  seems  to 
be  rich  in  the  good  things  of  the  world,  has  just  let 
one  of  our  ladies  peep  into  his  wife's  inner  bed-cham- 
ber, and  here  is  the  brief  result  of  her  explorations : 

Little  or  no  furniture ;  no  chairs ;  no  bedstead — nothing  but 
mats  to  sleep  on.  A  toilet-box  was  on  the  floor,  near  the  wall — 
about  the  only  article  of  furniture  in  the  room.  In  this  box 
there  were  five  drawers,  and  two  lacquer  basins  on  top.  In  the 
top  drawer  of  this  box  there  was  a  metallic  mirror,  like  our 
hand-glasses.  In  the  second  drawer  she  kept  her  powder,  paint, 
wax,  brush,  tooth-powder  and  brush.  Two  little  drawers 
came  next ;  in  one  she  had  her  false  hair,  and  in  the  other 
fancy  pins,  gilt  paper,  and  other  fixings  for  her  hair.  In  the 
lower  drawer  was  her  pillow,  which  is  placed  under  the  neck 
when  sleeping  on  the  mats,  so  as  to  prevent  the  hair  from  being 
rumpled.  It  is  made  of  wood,  and  covered  with  paper  on  the 
top.  The  powder  looks  like  starch,  and  when  they  use  it  they 
mix  a  little  water  with  it,  and  rub  it  in  like  paste ;  and  they 
have  two  brushes  that  they  use  to  rub  it  off  with.  The  paint 
looks  green,  and  turns  red,  when  put  on  the  lips  and  cheeks. 

The  following  is  her  receipt  for  blacking  the  teeth : 

Take  three  pints  of  water,  and  having  warmed  it,  add  half  a 
tea- cupful  of  wine  (saki  ?).  Put  into  this  mixture  a  quantity  of 
red-hot  iron;  allow  it  to  stand  five  or  six  days,  when  there 
will  be  a  scum  on  the  top  of  the  mixture,  which  should  then  be 
poured  into  a  small  tea-cup  and  placed  near  the  fire.  When  it 
is  warm,  powdered  gall-nuts  and  iron  filings  should  be  added 
to  it,  and  the  whole  should  be  warmed  again.  The  liquid  is 
then  painted  on  the  teeth  by  a  soft  feather  brush,  with  more 
powdered  gall-nuts  and  iron,  and  after  several  applications,  the 
desired  color  will  be  obtaiued. 

"Whether  the  married  women  like  thus  to  black 
their  teeth  or  not,  is  disputed  among  foreign  residents 


ON  THE  INLAND  SEA  OF  JAPAN.  127 

here..  The  men  compel  them,  however,  to  do  it, 
whether  they  like  it  or  not,  for  it  is  the  great  sign  by 
which  a  man  consecrates  and  shows  off  his  female 
chattel  to  the  world.  Whoever  has  blackened  teeth 
is  not  to  be  touched  by  other  men,  on  pain  of  death. 
The  eyebrows  of  married  women,  I  may  as  well  add 
here,  are  shaved,  and  their  lips  rouged!  (Needs 
there,  then,  this  penalty  of  death?) 

The  Japanese  women  are  not  pretty;  but  they 
have  charming  natural  manners;  with  beautifully 
shaped  arms,  and  tiny  hands.  The  young  women 
are  all  as  remarkable  for  their  superb  white  teeth,  as 
the  married  ones  are  for  their  hideous  black  ones. 
This  custom  originated  some  two  or  three  hundred 
years  ago,  and  is  supposed  to  show  the  wife's  devo- 
tion to  her  husband.  One  of  the  Mikado's  wives  (so 
goes  the  legend)  was  very  lovely,  and  to  show  her 
indifference  to  her  personal  appearance,  and  to  prove 
her  love  for  her  husband,  blackened  her  beautiful 
teeth  and  shaved  off  her  eyebrows.  This  was  con- 
sidered such  a  sacrifice,  that  all  living  wives  (not 
to  be  outdone  by  Mrs.  Mikado)  followed  her  exam- 
ple. The  custom  has  become  compulsory. 

In  now  bidding  a  final  adieu  to  Japan,  I  feel  a 
regret  I  never  felt  in  leaving  a  foreign  country  before. 
It  is  so  beautiful !  The  people  seem  so  amiable ! 
The  happiness  apparently  so  universal !  But  I  feel 
that  in  my  hasty  skimming  and  sketching  I  know 
nothing  of  it,  and,  doubtless,  I  have  blundered  often 
in  what  I  have  so  hastily  pencilled,  as  you  see  by  this 


128  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

manuscript,  on  mulberry  (Japan)  paper.  Forgive, 
then,  all  blunders.  A  little  is  perhaps  better  than 
nothing,  even  if  error  is  in  it  at  times.  Lovers  of 
fruits  and  of  vegetables  will  not  find  them  in  Japan. 
The  peach  is  not  fit  to  eat.  There  is  nothing,  in  the 
fruit  way,  eatable  but  plums.  The  vegetation  has 
no  taste.  Sheep  cannot  live  in  Japan.  The  grass 
kills  them,  after  repeated  experiments;  and  hence, 
we  have  no  mutton,  save  what  is  imported  from 
China.  But  the  fish  are  excellent,  and  the  beef 
tender  and  good.  One,  therefore,  will  not  starve 
amid  the  beauties  of  Japan. 


LETTER  XV. 

ON,  AND  OVER  TO  CHINA. 

On  the  Yellow  Sea,  bound  to  Shanghai— The  Great  Yang-tze  and  its  Yellow  "Water. 
— Up  the  Whang-poo. — Reflections  on  entering  the  Great  Gates  of  China. — 
Thermometer  in  Shanghai. — Hot,  Hotter,  Hottest. — Air  wanted,  a  Puff  or  a 
Typhoon. — Things  In  and  About  Shanghai. — The  Summer  Costume. — Innumer- 
able Mounds  or  Graves  in  the  Cotton-Fields. — American  Flag  in  the  Yang-tze. — 
We  are  taking  the  Coasting  Trade  of  China,  etc. 

SHANGHAI,  July,  1871. 

EXIT  Japan !  Lo,  presto,  China !  Good-by,  ye 
polysyllabic  Japanese,  Kotsuki  no  Kami  Kuranos- 
ukie,  Uzesugi,  Kobayashi,  Shimidgu  Ikaku ;  and  wel- 
come, now,  Ah  Sin,  A  Pu,  Sing  Sing,  Jung  Ku,  Ki 
Sam — nay,  all  of  the  monosyllabic  Chinese  vocabu- 
lary !  I  am  on  the  Yellow  Sea,  or  just  south  of  the 
Yellow  Sea,  on  my  way  to  the  islands  of  the  Yang-tze, 
thence  to  the  Hwang  p'u,  or  Whang-poo,  on,  to  Shang- 
hai, the  great  Asiatic-European  commercial  city.  The 
water  is  now  so  yellow,  that  I  should  have  no  hesita- 
tion in  calling  it  the  Yellow  Sea,  if  they  did  not  tell 
me  that  all  this  "  yellow  "  comes  from  the  mud  of  the 
great  Yang-tze  River,  which  begins  somewhere  up  in 
the  Thibet  Mountains,  and  runs  and  crooks,  three 
thousand  miles  to  the  ocean,  with  all  the  dirt  and 

filth  it  can  gather  from  innumerable  cities,  and  all 

7 


130  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

the  mud  it  can  sweep  out  from  thousands  of  valleys 
and  mountains.  So  many  canals  empty  into  this 
great  river,  that  it  may  be  said  to  be  the  inlet  and 
outlet  of  the  commerce  of  the  three  or  four  hundred 
millions  of  Chinamen — for,  which  is  it,  three  or  four 
hundred  millions,  the  population  here?  —  Nobody 
knows — at  least,  no  one  can  answer  !  Three  hundred 
millions,  however,  are  enough  for  a  nation,  are  they 
not  ?  And  hence,  the  river  that  draws  off  the  dirt  of 
these  millions  upon  millions  must  be  yellow  enough 
to  yellow  even  a  sea.  The  Yankee  steamer's  wheels 
are  splashing  through  these  yellow-made  waves,  some 
forty,  some  sixty  miles  off  from  the  coast — for  thus, 
long  before  you  get  into  China,  you  are  upon  its 
watery  soil.  Shoals,  shallows  of  mud,  islands  un- 
der water  and  over  water,  at  times,  are  all  about  us. 
Pilot  boats,  of  course,  are  indispensable,  and  we 
greet,  with  no  little  pleasure,  miles  and  miles  off, 
a  New- York-looking  pilot-boat,  with  a  John  Bull 
pilot  on  board,  who  relieves  the  anxious  mind  of 
our  Cape  Cod  Yankee  captain,  and  conducts  us  tow- 
ard the  port. 

Upon  entering  this  vast  portal,  of  this,  the  great- 
est empire  upon  earth,  where  so  much  of  human  life 
has  been  ebbing  in  and  out,  so  many  thousands  of 
years,  that  history  is  blinded,  and  cannot  number  the 
many,  one  cannot  help  dreaming  or  thinking  a  little 
out  loud.  Here,  is  a  country  older  than  Jerusalem, 
older  than  Egypt,  probably — a  country  which  was 
comparatively  civilized  centuries  before,  when  we 


ON,  AND  OVER  TO   CHINA.  131 

Caucasians  were  barbarians — once  going  ahead  for 
centuries  (nay,  probably  up  to  the  time  it  touched 
our  European  civilization),  but  now  going  astern — a 
country  that  blessed  us  with  the  compass,  the  art  of 
printing,  and  blessed  us  (or  cursed  us)  with  gun- 
powder— the  land  of  Confucius  and  Mencius,  whose 
heavenly  teachings,  though  older  than  Christ's,  seem, 
most  of  them,  to  have  been  almost  as  much  inspired ; 
and  I,  a  Yankee,  from  a  new  world  and  long  un- 
known, under  a  Yankee  flag,  with  Yankee  paddle- 
wheels,  am  coasting  up  into  it,  with  the  proud  con- 
sciousness that  this  use  of  steam  is  my  own  country- 
man's discovery,  with  the  telegraph,  and  hundreds  of 
other  good  things  more,  but  now  far,  far  beyond  the 
celestial  Chinaman's  dreams,  day,  even  despised  by 
him,  as  he  despises  "  the  foreign  devil,"  that  outside 
barbarian,  who  is  tormenting  him  with  novelties. 
This  is  the  land  of  the  mulberry  and  of  the  busy  silk- 
worm, of  silks,  of  satins,  the  luxurious  prizes  Roman 
matrons  coveted,  but  yearned  for  often  in  vain,  be- 
cause of  their  enormous  cost,  and  of  the  leaf  that  ships 
for  three  centuries  now,  have  been  risking  every  thing 
to  win — the  tea-leaf,  I  mean — a  beverage,  though 
coming  from  the  Yang-tze,  that  every  maid  and 
maiden,  as  well  as  man,  feels  now  to  be  a  necessity 
of  life,  whether  he  or  she  lives  on  the  Don,  or  the 
Volga,  or  the  Thames,  or  the  Liffey — by  the  Sacra- 
mento or  the  Passamaquoddy — in  Oregon  or  in  Nova 
Scotia.  A  boy  emperor,  now  only  fifteen,  reigns 
over  this  vast  empire,  and  these  millions  upon  mill- 


132  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

ions,  in  fear  and  trembling,  all  obey.     Exit,  this  sort 
of  ejaculation.    Enter,  China. 

Shanghai  is  from  Nagasaki  (Japan)  four  hundred 
and  fifty-nine  miles,  from  Hiogo  (or  Kobe)  three 
hundred  and  eighty-six  miles,  from  Yokohama  three 
hundred  and  forty-two  miles ;  fare,  one  hundred  dol- 
lars, first-class,  other  classes  any  price;  for  these  one 
thousand  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  miles,  time, 
including  stoppages,  one  week.  Shanghai  is  not  on 
the  great  river,  but  on  the  Whang-poo,  only  a  tidal 
river,  some  forty  miles  long,  but  on  which  great 
ships  do  enter,  not  without  some  fear,  though,  of 
being  stuck  in  the  mud.  Indeed,  the  whole  of  this 
country  about  here  is  mud-made — like  the  Mississip- 
pi, or  the  Nile  Deltas' — and  islands  are  ever  popping 
up,  and  growing,  where  once  great  ships  swam.  The 
land-greedy  Chinese  bank  up,  and  rob  Neptune  when- 
ever they  can,  and  the  consequence  is,  that  when  a 
hot,  baking  July  sun  shoots  down  its  rays  upon  vast 
areas  of  fresh  mud,  a  malaria  poisons  the  region  all 
round  about — so  that,  as  I  enter  here,  already  I 
wish  I  was  anywhere  else ;  but  I  only  mean  to  run  the 
gauntlet,  and  be  off  in  the  first  boat. 

The  thermometer  is  the  biggest  liar  that  ever 
lived.  It  is  only  ninety-five  or  ninety-eight  degrees 
here  at  night,  and  one  hundred  or  one  hundred  and 
three  degrees  by  day,  and  yet  it  is  hotter,  intensely 
hotter,  than  I  have  felt  it  in  the  Napa  (California) 
Valley,  coming  from  the  Geysers,  in  July,  at  one 


ON,  AND    OVER  TO   CHINA.  133 

hundred  and  eighteen  degrees,  or,  on  the  sands  of 
Egypt.  Thermometers,  therefore,  I  have  no  hesita- 
tion in  saying,  lie,  not  exactly  in  words,  or  figures, 
or  letters,  but  in  spirit,  in  substance,  in  caloric,  at 
least.  I  am  suffocating  here !  I  cannot  get  breath 
enough !  What  would  I  give  for  a  puff,  and  how 
much  more  for  a  typhoon,  even  if  a  destructive  one  ? 
There  is  no  air,  night  nor  day,  and,  if  possible,  it  is 
hotter  by  night  than  by  day.  There  is  no  sleep  in 
this  oven-bed,  and  if  there  were,  the  mosquitoes 
would  eat  you  up,  if  you  did  not  throw  over  you  the 
well-reticulated  net.  A  mattress  is  unendurable ;  a 
mat  has  to  be  laid  on  that,  or  your  perspiration  would 
stick  you  to  the  mattress.  Never,  never,  Yankee 
pilgrim,  enter  here  in  June,  July,  or  August.  They 
say  you  can  breathe,  and  live,  and  sleep,  in  all  the 
other  months  of  the  year ;  but  if  you  will  be  such  a 
fool  as  I  am,  and  come,  drink,  and  drink  deep,  not 
exactly  of  the  Pierian  Spring — not  water,  for  that  is 
poison  here — but  claret,  hock,  champagne,  porter, 
beer,  and  eat  ice,  and  little  else,  except  bread  and 
meat.  Shanghai  is  nearly  in  the  latitude  of  Northern 
Florida ;  but  amid  low  lands  as  it  is,  on  which  are 
boundless  fields  of  cotton,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
great  Yang-tze,  doubtless,  the  climate  is  like  that  of 
New  Orleans,  on  the  Mississippi,  with  the  ther- 
mometer ranging  higher.  What  I  know  for  a  cer- 
tainty is,  you  will  never  catch  me  here  again  in  July, 
if  there  be  any  way  of  getting  around  it,  or  over  it, 
or  under  it. 


134:  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'- KUN. 

The  foreign  residents  of  Shanghai  suffer  not  a  lit- 
tle this  season  of  the  year ;  but  here,  then,  they  must 
stay,  for  now  is  the  season  of  "  tea,"  and  "  silk,"  the 
great  exported  staples  of  the  country.  In  winter  they 
can  play,  but  never  in  the  summer.  They  prepare 
themselves  for  being  roasted  as  well  as  possible — not 
exactly  in  our  Georgia,  or  the  Japanese,  natural  cos- 
tume, but  as  near  to  it,  as  civilization  will  permit. 
They  go  without  shirts,  to  begin  with.  A  white  flan- 
nel frock-coat,  closely  fitting  the  body,  somewhat 
fancifully  made,  with  white  linen  trowsers,  is  the  cos- 
tume. No  dickey  is  sported  over  that  coat.  ~No  dickey 
could  stand  the  drippings  of  perspiration  here  over 
five  minutes,  if  on.  They  live  thus,  and  do  business 
with  a  punka,  or  wind-flap,  flying  over  them,  ever 
kept  going  by  a  half-sleeping  coolie  (Chinaman).  We 
breakfast  by  punkas  ;  we  dine  by  punkas.  Heaven 
giving  us  no  breezes,  men  raise  as  many  artificial 
winds  as  possible.  No  one  ventures  out,  if  it  can  be 
helped,  till  the  sun  is  going  down.  A  great  two- 
story,  long-tailed  pith  hat  is  then  sported.  They  ride 
out  toward  sunset  in  "  traps,"  low-hung  carriages, 
drawn  by  one  pony,  or,  in  a  California-made  carriage, 
with  California  horses,  where  that  costly  luxury  can 
bo  afforded ;  or,  they  go  in  sedan  chairs,  or,  are  wheel- 
ed by  a  Chinaman,  two  at  a  time,  on  a  wheelbarrow, 
dog-cheap  for  such  rides  as  that — the  vilest  invention, 
by  the  way,  for  going,  I  have  ever  seen  yet — worse, 
if  possible,  than  the  Japanese  cango. 

The  evening  drive  in  Shanghai  to  the  bubbling 


ON,  AND   OVER  TO  CHINA.  135 

spring  seems  to  be  the  great  event  of  the  day.  Then, 
the  sweltering  foreigners  turn  out  into  the  country, 
to  breathe  the  air — (but  is  there  ever  any  ?) — and  in 
their  various  vehicles  they  make  long  processions,  for 
the  turn-outs  are  numerous  here,  and  the  foreign 
population  is  well-to-do  in  the  world,  if  not  wealthy, 
all.  Woe !  woe !  however,  to  any  poor  wretch  of  a 
Chinaman  in  the  way  of  one  of  these  traps,  or  vehicles 
— for  all  drive  with  the  fury  of  Jehus,  among  them, 
and  through  the  thickest  of  their  narrow  streets, 
without  any  seeming  regard  to  life  or  limb.  The  idea 
is,  or  seems  to  be,  that  "  Shanghai  belongs  to  us,  not 
to  you,"  and,  "get  out  of  the  way,  or  we  will  ride, 
rough-shod  over  you."  "Wonderful  to  say,  however,  but 
few  accidents  occur,  and  when  they  do,  the  foreigners 
pay  for  them  in  a  way  abundant  enough  to  satisfy 
the  Chinese  love  of  money. 

On  all  these  drives  out  of  Shanghai,  what  most 
arrests  an  American's  attention,  especially  one  just 
.now,  with  half  a  foot  in  the  grave,  from  the  diseases 
of  the  climate,  are  the  graves  or  mounds  of  the  Chi- 
nese, which  seem  to  dot,  if  not  to  half  cover,  the 
great  cotton-fields  all  about.  These  mounds  or  graves 
have  been  going  up — how  many  years  shall  I  say  ? 
four  thousand  ?  Quien  sabe  ? — and  in  many  places 
they  seem  to  cover  the  ground,  essentially  interfering 
with  and  obstructing  cultivation.  The  Chinese  rev- 
erence, nay,  worship  their  ancestors,  and  hence  pre- 
serve these  ancestral  graves,  mere  mounds,  with  idol- 
atrous veneration.  Cultivation  would  be  desecration, 


136  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

though  they  do  use  the  grass  grown  over  them  to  feed 
their  cattle.  At  first,  the  dead  are  left  on  the  top  of 
the  ground  in  two-storied  coffins,  and  then,  in  time, 
over  these  coffins,  the  earth  is  piled.  These  mounds, 
now  innumerable,  these  coffins,  thus  uplifted,  are  not 
exactly  pleasant  suggestions,  under  a  July  sun,  and 
they  mar  the  pleasures  of  the  drive,  till  the  eye  is  ac- 
customed to  them,  as  it  can  be  to  any  thing.  They 
have  become,  too,  great  obstructions  to  the  advance- 
ment and  improvement  of  the  country — for  no  rail- 
road can  be  run  through,  or,  over  them ;  no  telegraph, 
with  the  evil  spirit  on  its  wires,  near  them ;  nor  com- 
mon road,  without  a  world  of  expense  and  negotia- 
tion. The  race-course  here  is  full  of  grave  mounds, 
save  on  the  track,  and  how  the  track  was  cleared  of 
these  graves,  I  have  not  learned,  doubtless,  by  the 
omnipotence  in  China  (as  elsewhere)  of  the  almighty 
dollar. 

But,  upon  the  whole,  even  in  July,  and  to  a  half 
dead  man,  as  I  have  been  ever  since  I  breathed  what 
is  miscalled  "  air"  here,  Shanghai  is  an  achievement, 
a  wonderful  place,  considering  how  it  has  arisen  from 
the  swamp  in  only  four  or  five  years.  There  are  beau- 
tiful Italian  villas  all  through  it.  There  are  churches 
that  would  do  honor  to  ISTew  York.  There  are  clubs 
with  all  the  luxuries  of  the  clubs  of  London  or  New 
York.  British  and  American  mercantile  houses, 
mainly,  with  some  German  and  French,  have  made 
good  streets,  good  roads,  and  made  good  municipal 
governments — self-elected — all  within  five  or  six 


ON,   AND   OVER  TO   CHINA.  137 

years.  Some  three  thousand  foreigners  live  here,  en- 
joying all  the  blessings  of  life,  except  water  and  air 
— (don't  laugh) — and  make  money,  and  grow  rich, 
and  then  go  home,  if  they  don't  die  here,  to  enjoy  it. 
They  have  daily  and  weekly  newspapers — well- writ- 
ten ones,  too — and  doctors  (of  course),  and  lawyers, 
and  courts.  Every  foreign  nation,  you  know,  has 
exclusive  jurisdiction  over  its  own  subjects,  and  the 
British  have  their  especial  judges,  while  our  judges 
are  our  consuls.  "Where  commerce  is  by  the  millions, 
as  it  is  here,  the  law  cases  are  often  of  the  gravest 
importance ;  and  I  see  by  the  journals,  the  lawyers 
argue  with  as  much  force  and  ability  as  if  in  the 
United  States  or  in  England.  We  Americans  have 
our  gaol  here ;  the  British  and  other  nations  have 
theirs.  The  Chinese  but  look  on — for  Shanghai  is 
foreign-governed  in  every  sense,  except  the  sov- 
reignty  territorial.  It  is  wonderful  that  such  mixed 
systems  have  worked  so  well ;  that  the  police  is  so 
effective,  the  pilots  and  harbor  arrangements  so  good, 
and  that  so  many  nations  live  together  in  such  har- 
mony. 

An  American  place  is  Shanghai  now — far  more 
than  any  other  place  in  China ;  and  though  the  Brit- 
ish manufacturers  have  nearly  driven  us  out  of  the 
market,  in  cotton  and  woollen  goods,  and  driven  our 
ships  off  the  ocean,  yet  Americans  "  never  say  die," 
and  work,  and  work  well,  despite  the  destructiveness 
of  our  tariff  law.  The  Pacific  Mail  Company  (ours) 
have  nearly  driven  off,  with  thefr  weekly  lines  to 


138  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

Japan,  English  and  French  competition;  and  they 
have  done  it  by  the  superiority  of  their  steamers,  and 
their  superior  management  of  them.  They  live,  that 
is  all ;  but  they  live  in  the  hope  of  a  better  day,  while 
the  flag  that  they  float  here  makes  every  American 
proud  of  his  country.  But  a  few  years  gone  by, 
Americans  sent  out  here  some  of  our  river  steamers, 
to  run  from  Shanghai  to  Hankow,  six  hundred  miles 
off,  up  the  great  Yang-tze — the  Amazon,  the  Missis- 
sippi, of  China.  Boats  from  Mystic  (Conn.),  and  from 
other  parts  of  !N"ew  England  and  ISTew  York,  were 
sent  here.  But  that  day  is  over.  We  can  build  no 
more  ships  in  Mystic,  or  anywhere,  under  our  laws ; 
but  the  day  for  our  flag  to  be  emblazoned  on  the 
Yang-tze  is  not  yet  over.  We  are  bringing  out  the 
workmen,  and  are  going  to  build  ships  here.  We 
buy  the  timber  in  Oregon,  or  Washington  Territory, 
and  put  it  together  here.  There  are  eighteen  steamers 
under  our  flag  now  on  the  Yang-tze,  running  six 
hundred  miles  up  and  down,  and  coining  money. 
There  are  others  running  once  or  twice  a  week  to 
Tientsin  (en  route  to  Pekin),  all  under  our  flag,  and 
floating  it  before  millions  and  millions  of  Chinamen's 
eyes,  who  are  thus  taught  to  look  upon  "  the  flowery 
flag,"  so  they  call  it,  as  omnipresent,  everywhere, 
in  the  Yellow  Sea  and  in  the  North  of  China.  But 
some  of  these  ships  are  already  British  purchased 
ships,  with  no  right  to  our  flag,  save  under  consular 
authority.  They  have  never  seen  an  American  port, 
and  therefore,  under  our  laws,  can  never  enter  there. 


ON,  AND  OVER  TO  CHINA.  139 

These  American  steamers,  with  their  superior  ac- 
commodations, have  nearly  monopolized  the  vast 
commerce  of  the  great  Yang-tze.  Forty  thousand 
junkmen,  wails  an  official  Mandarin,  have  been  thrown 
out  of  employment  in  the  coasting-trade  alone  !  Per- 
haps so ;  but  if  so,  they  have  increased  the  home 
value  of  Chinese  teas  and  silks  more  than  the 
worth  of  the  useless  labor  of  forty  thousand  junkmen. 
For  a  while  they  had  all  the  freights  to  themselves. 
The  British  resisted  at  first,  by  sending  their  clippers 
up  the  Tang-tze  to  Hankow ;  but  the  navigation  for 
sailing  ships  is  so  difficult  and  dangerous,  that  the 
insurance  becomes  more  than  the  freight.  Now  they 
are  sending  quick  tea  steamers. 


LETTER  XVI. 

THE  HEALTH  OF  CHINA. 

Where's  Chefoo  ?— A  "Watering-Place  in  China. — Amusements  There.— The  Amer- 
ican and  Other  Fleets.— The  Noisy  Salutations  of  the  Fleets.— Church  Service 
on  the  Colorado. — The  Corean  Expedition. — The  Eace  of  the  Rival  American 
Barges. — Kain  here. — Breakfast  by  the  Russian  Admiral. — The  English  (Uni- 
versal) Language. — Entertainments  given  us  by  the  Russians. — Affinity  of 
Russians  and,  Americans. — Admiral  Rodgers's  State  Breakfast. — Divine  Service 
on  board  the  Russian  Flag-Ship. — A  Busy  "Week. — The  Novel  Assemblage  at 
Chefoo  about  to  disperse. 

CHEEFO,  August  1,  1871. 

Q.  WHERE'S  Chefoo?  A.  Close  by  Corea.  Q. 
"Where's  Corea  ?  A.  Look  on  the  map  and  see.  But 
the  whereabouts  of  Corea  all  of  you  ought  by  this 
time  to  know — for  our  Admiral  Jack  Rodgers  has 
just  been  thundering  and  lightning  there  with  his 
little  fleet,  and  is  now  back  here,  with  lots  of  Corean 
trophies,  battle-flags,  jingalls,  spears,  etc.  Corea  is  j ust 
across  the  Yellow  Sea,  about  two  hundred  miles  from 
this  promontory  of  Shantung,  and  you  can  go  there 
in  a  day.  Chefoo  is,  in  summer,  to  Shanghai  and 
Pekin,  the  Newport,  Long  Branch,  or  Cape  May  of 
China.  The  Shanghaites  send  up  here  their  wives 
and  children,  to  live  through  the  summer,  and  come 
occasionally  themselves,  while  the  Pekin-European 
residents  come  down  here  to  escape,  as  they  say,  the 
terrible  heats  of  Pekin.  It  is  five  hundred  and  twelve 


THE  HEALTH  OF  CHINA. 

miles  from  Shanghai,  about  four  hundred  from  Pekin, 
in  about  the  latitude,  and  with  the  air,  of  Old  Point 
Comfort  (Ya.),  mosquitoes  included — and  a  few  extra 
fleas,  and  an  occasional  scorpion,  added  on  1  Never- 
theless, Chefoo  is  the  summer  heaven  of  the  Shanghai 
Hades.  I  feel  as  if  I  were  in  Paradise.  I  am  revel- 
ling just  on  the  borders  of  the  ocean  surf,  with  nine 
American  and  European  war-ships  in  the  port,  with 
their  flags,  all  in  the  range  and  sight  of  our  fair  and 
comfortable  summer  hotel.  This  fleet  must  have  on 
board,  in  all,  some  twenty-five  hundred  Americans, 
French,  Germans,  and  Russians,  and  they  make  Che- 
foo, otherwise  desolate — with  not  a  road  in  it,  or 
around  it,  for  vehicles,  and  no  communication  but  by 
sedan  chairs — a  very  jolly  place,  at  least  for  this 
summer.  We  go  everywhere  we  can,  by  water.  The 
coolies  take  us  through  the  surf,  in  their  chairs,  to 
the  boats,  or,  we  get  on  the  back  of  some  lusty  sailor, 
who  takes  pleasure  in  saving  us  from  a  ducking,  as 
we  go  to  visit  the  ships.  We  have  nearly  recovered 
our  health,  all  of  us — are  ready  for  any  thing — and 
these  combined  fleets,  whose  officers  are  all  on  good 
terms,  the  one  with  the  other,  are  giving  fun  enough 
to  everybody.  The  place,  just  now,  is  a  second  ex- 
Old  Point  Comfort,  or,  the  regatta  season  at  New- 
port— with  breakfast  parties,  dinner  parties,  water 
parties,  dances,  serenades,  etc.  Three  foreign  min- 
isters of  the  great  powers  are  here — the  Russian, 
General  Vlangali,  the  British,  Mr.  "Wade,  the  Amer- 
ican, Mr.  Low — with  their  attaches,  retinues,  etc. 


142  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

Four  bands  of  music  are  on  board  the  ships — one,  on 
the  Colorado  (American),  one,  on  the  Almas  (Rus- 
sian), one,  on  the  Ocean  (British),  and  one,  on  the 
Herther  (German.)  Here  are  materials  enough  for 
society,  you  see,  in  this  great  naval  rendezvous — a 
place  chosen  for  its  health,  and  where  ships  congre- 
gate for  the  sake  of  their  crews.  There  are  two 
hotels  here,  a  mile  apart,  the  one  inaccessible  to  the 
other,  in  consequence  of  creeks  to  be  waded,  save  in 
sedan  chairs  ;  and  in  one  or  the  other  of  these  hotels, 
every  evening,  before  dinner,  which  is  at  eight  o'clock, 
p.  M.,  one  or  the  other  of  the  four  bands  plays.  I 
often  ask  myself,  what  do  the  Chinese  say — patient, 
hard-working  fellows — what  do  they  think  of  these 
great,  boisterous,  ever  ship  thundering  cannon  saluta- 
tions, and  over  this  invasion  of  their  otherwise  quiet 
little  Chefoo  ?  Every  minister  has  to  be  saluted — 
every  admiral,  every  consul — and  hence,  from  these 
nine  ships-of-war,  gunpowder,  by  day,  seems  ever  ex- 
ploding. The  roar  rattles  in  and  around,  and  echoes 
from  the  Chefoo  hills ;  and  Confucius,  born  in  this 
province,  whose  grave  is  not  far  off,  must  feel  his 
bones  shake,  if  there  be  any  of  his  bones  left. 

SUNDAY. — We  went  to  church  on  board  the  Colora- 
do— the  full  Episcopal  service,  and  nearly  all  the  crew 
attending.  It  seemed  strange,  but  reverential,  here, 
in  this  far-off  land,  to  be  hearing  that  beautiful 
service,  between  decks,  in  our  own  native  tongue, 
from  our  own  chaplain.  It  transported  us  to  our 
distant  Sabbath  home,  and  we  felt  as  if  we  were 


THE  HEALTH  OF   CHINA.  143 

there,  when,  on  the  planks  of  one  of  our  ships,  the 
chaplain  prayed  "  for  the  President  of  the  United 
States  and  all  others  in  authority."  The  Colorado 
officers  recited  to  us  their  unprinted  and  as  yet  un- 
written adventures  in  Corea — as  surveyors,  as  sailor- 
soldiers — and  they  showed  the  numerous  little  tro- 
phies they  had  taken.  All  say,  "  never  were  bolder, 
braver  men  than  these  Coreans,"  whose  commanders' 
orders, "  death  or  victory,"  they  executed  to  the  letter, 
by  dying,  save,  when  wounded,  they  could  not  con- 
tinue the  fight  to  die.  Not  a  word,  as  yet,  have  our 
fleet  heard  from  the  Government  in  "Washington,  in 
reply  to  letters  or  telegrams ;  and  now,  they  but  await 
the  coming  mail  due  here,  to  abandon  the  expedition, 
and  to  start  for  Japan,  to  be  in  port  as  safe  as  pos- 
sible during  the  approaching  typhoon  season. 

MONDAY. — Rain,  rain,  nothing  but  rain  !  A  long, 
dry  season  has  been  followed  by  a  severe  rain. 
Houses  stand  drouths  here  pretty  well ;  but  this  rain 
js  washing  away  our  hotel.  The  builders  here  build 
of  mud,  and  lime,  and  straw — much  mud  and  little 
lime — and  hence,  when  a  flood  comes,  such  as  we  are 
having  now,  the  mud  washes  away,  and  down  tumble 
ceilings,  and  walls,  and  plastering,  and  every  thing 
else.  Certain  it  is,  our  hotel  is  being  washed  down, 
and  is  running  off  into  the  Chefoo  Bay ;  and,  if  it 
washes  much  more,  we  shall  have  to  take  to  the  Co- 
lorado, the  Alaska,  or  the  Benicia,  the  American 
ships  now  in  port,  for  refuge  from  the  flood.  Pekin, 
I  am  told,  whither  I  am  now  travelling,  is  pretty 


144  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

well  under  mud,  if  not  all  under  water — for  the  floods 
above  have  been  severe,  while  the  Peiho  River  (the 
river  near  Pekin)  is  running  over. 

TUESDAY. — There  was  a  great  boat-race  between 
the  barges  of  the  Colorado  and  the  Alaska — and  never 
did  a  regatta  excite  greater  interest  in  New  York,  or 
in  Southampton  (England),  than  did  this  regatta. 
Two  admirals — one  American  (Rodgers),  one  Rus- 
sian (Federovski) — and  two  foreign  ministers — Gen. 
Ylangali  (Russian)  and  Mr.  Low  (American) — with 
aids,  captains,  lieutenants,  too  numerous  to  mention, 
were  on  hand.  The  crews  of  the  three  American 
ships  were  in  the  highest  state  of  excitement,  running 
to  the  rigging  and  manning  the  yards,  as  if  so  many 
birds — all,  more  or  less,  having  staked  something  on 
the  result,  and  all,  therefore,  winning  or  losing  a 
little  of  that  something.  The  barge  of  the  Alaska 
won,  and  the  Colorado,  the  flag-ship,  was  down- 
hearted, of  course. 

THURSDAY. — Breakfasted  with  Admiral  Fede- 
rovski, on  board  his  flag-ship,  the  Almas,  in  company 
with  the  American  and  Russian  ambassadors,  and 
admirals,  and  captains  of  all  the  war-ships  in  port — 
making  a  large  party  of  us.  The  breakfast  was  in 
European  style — French — prepared  by  a  French 
restaurant-keeper  here,  and  sent  on  board.  A  tine 
Russian  band  played  during  the  breakfast,  which 
lasted  two  hours  or  more.  There  were  French,  Ger- 
man, and  Russian  officials  at  table,  but  all  spoke 
English — some  well,  all  passably  well.  The  English 


THE  HEALTH  OF  CHINA.  145 

language,  I  see — and  the  more  I  see,  the  better  I  see 
it — is  becoming  the  universal  language  of  the  edu- 
cated world.  Twenty  or  twenty-five  years  ago,  or 
less,  only  French  would  carry  you  through  the  world ; 
but  now  it  is  impossible  to  go  anywhere,  from  the 
pyramids  of  Egypt  to  the  mountains  of  Japan,  that 
English  will  not  pretty  well  carry  you  along.  Chi- 
nese house  servants,  more  or  less,  speak  English — 
"  pigeon  English,"  as  it  is  called — but,  nevertheless, 
comprehensible  English ;  and  go  where  you  will,  in 
whatever  society,  English  seems  now  to  be  the 
tongue.  Such  are  the  conquests  of  the  almighty 
dollar,  with  the  diffusion  of  English  colonization  in 
America,  the  Indies,  Australia,  and  elsewhere.  One 
of  the  Russians  with  us  to-day,  the  secretary  of  the 
Pekin  Embassy,  was  educated  in  Oxford  (England), 
and  speaks  English  better  than  the  English  them- 
selves— that  is,  without  their  hemming,  and  hawing, 
and  hesitating,  and  repeating,  and  re-repeating.  The 
-Russian  ambassador  and  the  Russian  admiral  both 
speak  English ;  and  what  was  remarkable,  in  a  group 
afterward,  when  landed  on  shore,  the  German  com- 
mander leading  off  in  German,  the  whole  group  of 
Russians  followed  him,  as  if  German  were  their  native 
tongue. 

The  Russian  admiral  gave  us,  and  the  ladies  with 
us,  a  novel  treat  after  the  breakfast  was  over ;  and 
that  was  the  Russian  (peasant)  dance,  executed  with 
admirable^effect  by  his  sailors.  One  of  the  officers, 
too,  threw  off  his  uniform,  and  put  on  a  sailor's  garb, 


146  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

to  enter  into  the  dance,  and  in  spirit,  vivacity,  and 
energy  contributed  to  our  common  enjoyment  of  the 
strange  spectacle  of  a  Russian  peasant  dance  on  a 
Chinese  sea.  The  band,  too,  played  several  Russian 
airs,  and  one,  a  national  one,  with  great  interest  to 
us.  The  whole  crew  united  with  the  band  in  singing 
the  national  anthem.  To  the  Russian  admiral,  who 
made  every  effort  to  please  us,  we  were  much  indebt- 
ed ;  and  we  left,  after  enjoying  one  of  the  pleasantest 
days  of  life.  The  Russians  seem  naturally  to  "  take  " 
to  us  Americans,  and  we  "  take"  to  them. 

FRIDAY. — Admiral  Rodgers  gave  a  "  state  "  break- 
fast to  the  Russian  admiral,  the  French  captain-in- 
chief,  the  German  captain-in-chief,  the  English  cap- 
tain-in-chief — to  the  Russian  and  American  Ministers, 
and  to  your  humble  servant.  These  officers,  all  ex- 
cept the  Frenchman  and  German,  seem  to  be  on  con- 
fidential terms  with  each  other,  even  in  matters  of 
their  profession,  and  their  conversation  was  prolonged 
for  hours  in  mutual  instruction  and  profit. 

SATURDAY. — Yisited  the  Alaska,  entertained  by 
Captain  Blake,  of  New  York,  who  distinguished  him- 
self on  James  River  and  in  Texas,  commanding  the 
Hatteras,  during  our  civil  war,  and  who  was  com- 
mander of  the  late  Corean  expedition.  By  the  way, 
I  may  say,  this  Corean  expedition  is  given  up,  unless 
our  Government  orders  to  the  contrary,  which  is  not 
probable,  before  the  intervention  of  Congress.  The 
ships  will  next  week  disperse — the  Colorado  to  Yoko- 
hama, the  Alaska  to  Nagasaki,  the  Benicia  up  the 


THE  HEALTH  OF  CHINA.  147 

Tang-tze  to  Hankow,  after  a  visit  to  Shanghai,  and 
the  Palos  up  the  gulf  here,  to  North  China. 

SUNDAY,  10^-  A.  M. — Revisited,  by  invitation  of 
Admiral  Federovski,  the  Almas,  to  attend  divine 
service.  A  Greek  priest,  a  very  handsome  fellow,  in 
a  black  cassock,  with  a  heavy-linked  gold  chain,  up- 
holding a  golden  cross,  officiated.  The  service  was 
in  old  Russian  (Sclave).  I  could  not  profit  much  by 
it,  in  what  was  harder  than  "  all  Greek  "  to  me ;  but 
in  the  extemporized  chapel,  flag-created,  with  its 
altars,  images,  candles,  and  incense,  there  was  quite 
enough  solemnity  to  be  well  understood.  Another 
breakfast  was  given  us  here,  after  the  service  was 
over,  with  another  Russian  country  dance. 

Four  and  a-half  p.  M. — Yisited,  by  invitation  of 
Captain  Hewett,  the  British  ship,  Ocean,  larger  than 
the  Colorado,  with  two  hundred  more  men  on  board 
— one  of  the  large-class  ships — with  a  very  pleasant 
entertainment  on  board. 

•  ••«•• 

I  have  gone  into  this  recitative,  personal  journal- 
ism, only  to  give  -you  an  idea  of  the  way  we  kill  time 
in  a  little,  dirty  Chinese  town,  all  mud  and  dirt,  ex- 
cept on  the  sands  where  we  are,  and  to  show  you  rep- 
resentative squadron  and  diplomatic  life  in  a  sum- 
mer European-coast  city  of  China.  There  will  be 
an  infinite  deal  of  gossip  in  the  Chinese  and  Japan- 
ese English  and  American  press,  as  to  what  all  this 
assemblage  means,  of  the  American,  British,  Russian, 
French,  and  German  squadrons,  with  their  admirals 


14:8  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

and  three  ministers  plenipotentiary.  But  all  means 
only  this — Health,  in  a  not  healthy  country,  in  the 
unhealthy  season — and  nothing  else.  "  Corea"  is 
reported  to  be  the  great  matter  of  consultation.  I  am 
said  to  have  brought  out  secret  orders  from  the  Unit- 
ed States  Government.  Corean  junks  have  arrived 
here,  as  spies  on  our  squadron  ;  but  there  is  nothing 
going  on,  save  what  I  have  journalized  above.  The 
British  minister,  in  the  morning,  returns  to  Pekin. 
I  go  too — by  water  and  by  mud  (this  is  yet  the  rainy 
season),  if  none  of  us  break  down  under  the  weather 
in  the  interior.  If  nothing  happens,  you  will  hear 
from  me  again  in  about  a  month,  and  I  will  tell  you 
something  of  the  great  capital  of  three  hundred  mil- 
lions of  Chinamen.  I  am  thinking,  too,  of  Siberia, 
and  of  going  home  via  St.  Petersburg ;  but  I  fear,  in 
consequence  of  brigands  lately  reported  on  the  route, 
I -shall  have  to  give  it  up. 


LETTEli  XYII. 

ON  THE  PEIHO  EIVEE. 

Tremendous  Flood  on  the  River  of  Peiho.— Whole  Villages  washed  away.— The 
People  drowned  out — Widespread  Desolation. — Living  on  the  Eiver  on  a  Yankee 
Steamer. — The  Grand  Canal  broken  loose. — The  Crooked  Peiho  Eiver. — The  Way 
we  wound  up  the  Eiver. — The  Tear-ago  Massacre  of  Europeans  and  Catholics  in 
Tien-tsin. — The  then  Fright  of  all  Missionaries. — Scare  about  going  there.— 
Guns  and  Gunboats  Commercial  and  Christian  Guarantees. — An  Exploration  of 
the  Old  Under-water  Tien-tsin,  in  a  British  Launch. — Innumerable  Junks. — The 
Euins  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  Cathedral.— The  Tombs  of  the  slain  Sisters.— Ter- 
rors predicted  for  Tourists  to  Pekin. — Nevertheless,  On,  On  to  Pekin. 

TIEN-TSIN,  August  10,  1871. 

LOOK  on  the  map,  and  you  will  find  where  this 
place  ought  to  be,  when  not  under  water,  as  now — 
on  the  Peiho  Eiver,  the  gateway  to  Pekin  from  the 
Gulf  of  Pe-chih-li,  and  where  the  British  and  French 
took  their  great  points  of  departure,  when,  some 
years  gone  by,  some  thousands  of  them  paid  their 
respects  to  the  celestial  Emperor,  in  his  celestial 
palace — respects  not  of  the  Jcouto  style  (nine  bend- 
ings  and  three  head-knockings),  but  respects  with 
heavy  cannon,  big  shot  and  little  shot,  sword,  bayo- 
net, and  revolver.  I  am  living  on  board  a  Yankee 
steamer,  ~built  in  Glasgow  (Capt.  Hawes,  all  the  way 
from  Searsport,  Me.),  under  the  "flowery"  Yankee 
flag,  and  all  above  me,  and  below  me,  and  nearly  all 
around  me,  is  desolation,  desolation,  DESOLATION.  The 


150  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

windows  of  lieaven  have  been  wide  open  for  two 
weeks,  pouring  out  nothing  but  water,  water — and 
some  say  frogs — and  all  upper  North-China  appears 
to  have  broken  loose,  and  to  be  flowing  down  here 
in  mud,  straw,  bamboo,  millet,  sorghum,  and  other 
crops,  etc.  The  Grand  Canal  has  broken  loose,  and 
is  pouring  in  the  Yellow  River,  if  not  into  the  Yang- 
tze. Houses,  mud  and  straw  built,  are  tumbling 
down  by  the  thousands.  "Whole  villages  are  swept 
away,  and  all  the  inhabitants  drowned.  The  desola- 
tion of  the  typhoon  I  witnessed  in  Japan  is  but 
a  trifle  in  comparison  with  this  universal  misery. 
Thousands  will  starve  to  death,  the  coming  winter, 
if  not  relieved  by  the  Pekin  government,  and  rebel- 
lion, as  in  such  cases  is  usual,  will  probably  follow. 

But,  I  am  not  solemnly  writing  history,  remem- 
ber, only  pencilling,  as  you  see — scribbling;  and, 
remember,  too,  that  you  print  only  a  rapid  traveller's 
journal.  Come,'  go  back,  then,  with  me  to  Chefoo. 
The  seventh  of  August,  about  midnight,  in  a  big 
rain,  we  left  the  "  Chefoo  Family  Hotel,"  in  sedan 
chairs,  two  coolies  only  to  each,  to  track  three  miles 
along  the  seacoast,  by  the  surf,  now  rolling,  and  over 
the  then  mountain  rivulets,  to  embark  for  Tien-tsin. 
And  such  "  a  ride ! "  such  "  a  ride ! "  The  Lord 
forgive  me  if  I  ever  again  take  it  at  midnight,  in  a 
rain  storm.  The  steamers  that  run  from  Shanghai 
to  Tien-tsin  (about  eight  hundred  miles)  always  take 
passengers  on  board  the  night  before,  as  they  leave 
at  daybreak  in  the  morning,  to  see  the  islands,  and 


ON  THE  PEIHO  RIVER. 

to  dodge  the  shallows.  "We  came  up  from  Shanghai 
to  Chefoo  in  the  rolling  "Manchu,"  Capt.  Steele, 
from  Townsend,  Mass.,  a  jolly,  rollicking,  capital 
fellow,  with  a  fair  library  on  board ;  and  we  came 
up  from  Chefoo  to  Tien-tsin  in  the  not  less  rolling 
"  Shantung,"  with  the  Maine  Capt.  Hawes  I  have 
before  spoken  of,  one  of  the  best  sailors  in  the  world, 
and  delighted  to  see  one  of  his  own  State  men 
in  this  far-off  land.  The  boats  of  this  American 
line  are  long,  thin,  shad-like  screws,  built  to  run  over 
the  Yang-tze  shallows  and  the  Gulf  of  Pe-chih-li 
flats  and  bars,  and  up  the  mud  of  the  narrow  Peiho 
— charming  boats,  when  the  heavens  smile,  but  only 
rocking-chairs  when  a  storm  gets  up,  as  it  did  for  the 
long,  lean,  but  otherwise  beautiful  "  Shantung."  A 
fog  hid  every  thing  from  our  eyes,  ten  feet  off.  We 
anchored  off  the  bar  of  the  Taku  forts.  We  shook, 
we  trembled,  we  tumbled,  we  pitched,  we  danced — 
but  the  strong  iron  chains  and  the  strong  anchors 
clasped  fast  hold  of  the  jocund  "Shantung."  For 
twenty-four  hours,  thus,  in  blissful  ignorance  of  our 
exact  whereabouts,  we  capered,  we  frolicked,  we 
starved — yet,  in  our  starvation,  fed  the  fishes  of  the 
sea.  Storms,  however,  never  last  always.  The  fog 
cleared  off,  and  we  found  ourselves  in  the  company 
of  junk  upon  junk,  waiting  for  the  fog  rising,  to  find 
the  mouth  of  the  Peiho.  Now,  however,  alas  !  the 
river  was  all  mouth.  The  whole  country  was  under 
water.  The  lofty  Taku  fort  embattlements,  with 
their  ugly-looking  Chinese  cannon,  were  not  yet 


152  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

drowned  out,  and  taking  them  for  our  landmarks, 
we  crooked  and  wound  about,  and  steamed  back- 
ward, up,  and  forward,  down,  on  our  way  up  to 
Tien-tsin,  sixty-four  miles  by  water,  and  twenty-four 
by  land.  But  what  navigation  !  Our  long,  lean, 
lank  Shantung,  as  long  as  the  river  is  wide,  would 
be  swung  by  the  current  right  across  the  river 
banks,  and  then  we  would  plough  into  the  banks 
with  her  nozzle,  and  root  off  perch  after  perch  of  the 
celestial  soil.  .Ruins  were  all  along  the  shore.  Mis- 
erable inhabitants,  abandoning  all,  were  getting  into 
junks  with  hogs,  cocks,  hens,  and  other  household 
gods,  while  over  the  tombs  of  their  idolized  ancestors 
were  pouring  the  wild,  wild  waters  from  the  broken 
banks  of  the  Peiho  and  the  Grand  Canal.  Through 
twisting  and  turning,  however,  pulling  and  hauling, 
wading  and  poling,  and  by  using  steam  and  the 
windlass,  our  persevering  captain  managed,  in  the 
light  of  a  long  August  day,  to  reach  Tien-tsin,  and 
to  find  all  the  inhabitants,  Europeans  and  Americans 
as  well  as  Chinese,  wailing,  if  not  weeping,  over  their 
common  misfortunes.  A  Russian  fellow-passenger 
with  us,  who  had  been  to  Hankow  to  buy  teas  for 
Eussia,  not  only  found  his  house  washed  down  and 
his  furniture  destroyed,  but  teas  of  his,  in  warehouse, 
damaged  to  the  amount  of  twenty  thousand  dollars, 
or  more. 

If  I  had  put  much  faith  in  stories  and  warnings, 
as  I  came  along,  since  I  left  home,  I  never  should 
have  put  foot  into  Tien-tsin.  Only  a  year  ago  in  July 


ON  THE  PEIIIO   RIVER.  153 

the  whole  European  population  in  the  Chinese  city 
was  swept  off  by  assassination  and  murder.  Roman 
Catholic  priests  and  nuns  were  slaughtered  without 
mercy,  with  the  French  Consul  and  others,  including 
two  Russians.  All  in  the  new  city,  the  European 
Tien-tsin,  were  spared.  Mischief-making  and  re- 
vengeful Chinese  leaders  had  put  it  into  the  heads  of 
the  ignorant  Tien-tsiners  (four  hundred  thousand, 
about,  is  the  population  of  the  city)  that  the  Roman 
Catholics  were  kidnapping  children  in  their  orphan 
asylums,  to  use  their  eyes,  ears,  and  the  more  vital 
or  mysterious  parts  of  the  human  body,  as  charms, 
philters,  potions,  spells,  to  bewitch  the  Chinese 
and  their  children.  The  zeal  of  these  Catholics 
to  fill  their  schools  with  children,  whom  thus  they 
hoped  to  make  instruments  for  propagating  Christian- 
ity, and  uprooting  Paganism,  lent  credence  to  these 
wicked  tales,  and  the  end  was  the  terrible  mob  that 
destroyed  the  beautiful  little  cathedral,  the  nunnery, 
the  hospitals — nay,  that  rooted  up,  and  rooted  out,  the 
whole  French  population  in  the  old  Tien-tsin.  Others 
were  murdered,  not  Roman  Catholics ;  a  Protestant 
church  in  the  vicinity  was  destroyed,  and  all  mission- 
aries, of  all  denominations,  everywhere  in  North 
China,  were  put  into  terrible  fright.  Chung  How, 
then  chief  mandarin  of  the  city,  caused  to  be  paid 
all  the  French  losses,  and  is  now  in  France,  trying 
to  propitiate  the  French  people,  to  save  Tien-tsin, 
hereafter,  from  bombardment,  or  the  French  bayonet. 
But  into  Tien-tsin  I  came,  nevertheless  and  not- 


154:  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

withstanding.  "Where  others  go  you  can  go,"  is 
reason.  If  a  traveller  did  not  guide  his  steps  by  this 
species  of  logic,  rumor  would  scare  him  off,  often, 
from  many  an  instructive  route  of  travel.  Guns, 
guns,  guns,  however,  are  here  now  great  guarantees. 
Two  French  and  one  British  gunboat  are  now  here, 
with  American,  German,  and  other  gunboats  often 
looking  in.  Fulminating  powder,  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
seems  indispensable  to  secure  trade  and  commerce ; 
and  Christianity,  guns,  and  missionaries  have  to  go 
together  in  China.  The  steam  launch  of  the  great 
British  iron-clad,  the  Ocean,  which  cannot  get  within 
fifteen  miles  of  the  mouth  of  the  Peiho  River,  has  just 
escorted  up  here,  on  his  way  back  to  Pekin,  Mr. 
"Wade,  the  British  Minister,  and  the  captain  of  the 
Ocean  invited  us  to  use  his  launch  with  him,  to 
explore  the  ruins  of  the  water-covered  Tien-tsin. 
We  steamed  up  the  river,  to  the  consternation  of  the 
Chinese  junks,  where  steam  never  went  before,  and 
hundreds  upon  hundreds,  if  not  thousands  upon 
thousands,  came  out  from  their  junk  holes,  as  bees 
from  hives,  to  see  what  this  puffing,  snorting,  little 
steam  devil  was  doing.  A  tall  Tartar  fellow,  some 
great  mandarin's  great  man,  was  lent  us,  to  scream 
the  Chinese  junks  out  of  our  way ;  and  as  we  spurted 
and  spouted,  junks  scattered,  as  fast  as  pole,  or  line, 
or  current  could  scatter  them.  Such  an  ocean  of 
water-craft,  such  cities  of  masted  craft  afloat,  such 
acres  upon  acres  of  shipping,  my  eyes  never  beheld 
before !  One  traveller  playfully  reports,  "  I  counted 


ON  THE  PEIHO  RIVER.  155 

a  hundred  millions  of  junks,  and  then  stopped."  I 
did  not  count.  There  was  too  much  to  count,  and 
too  much  to  see,  to  waste  time  to  count.  The  launch 
steamed  up  to  where  the  Roman  Catholic  Cathedral 
was.  Nothing  but  the  walls  are  left  now  and  the 
cross,  yet  golden,  on  the  tower's  top.  We  dropped  a 
tear  of  sympathy  beside  the  graves  of  the  good  Sisters 
of  Charity,  buried  near  by,  and  heard  a  Chinese- 
born  Catholic  recite  who  was  interred  here,  and  who, 
there.  These  poor  Sisters  were  flayed  alive  by  the 
infuriated  mob !  One  saved  herself  for  a  while  in 
Chinese  dress,  but  her  European  shoes  betrayed  her, 
and  she  was  slain,  too.  The  British  officers  with  us 
sympathized  earnestly  with  the  captain  of  the  French 
gunboat,  who  was  also  his  guest.  Strange  it  is,  but 
BO  it  is,  we  Americans,  Frenchmen,  Englishmen, 
Germans,  here,  in  this  heathen  land,  are  all  one. 
We  have  no  nationalities  not  forgotten  the  moment 
we  meet  one  of  our  own  race,  in  these  remote  spots. 
A  pic-nic  in  the  launch — a  tiffin  is  the  Eastern  name 
for  a  lunch — was  given  iis  near  the  ruins  of  the 
cathedral,  and  when  that  was  over,  we  explored,  as 
well  as  we  could  in  a  steamer,  the  drowned-out 
streets  and  tottering  houses  of  this  unhappy  Tien-tsiu. 
"Heaven  has  inflicted  this  upon  us,"  say  some  of 
them,  "  because  we  killed  the  God  of  the  Christians." 
Of  this  country,  under  water  now,  of  course  I  can 
see  nothing.  "  Go  back,"  says  everybody.  "  Don't 
go  up  to  Pekin."  "You  can't  get  there."  "You 
will  be  fifteen  or  twenty  days  in  going."  "  The  land 


156  -A-  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

route  is  all  under  water,  all  impassable."  Never 
were  reports  louder  in  traveller's  ear,  or  so  discour- 
aging. Nobody  could  take  us  in  at  Tien-tsin.  All 
houses  were  drowned  down,  or  uninhabitable  from 
rain,  save  that  of  the  British  Consul,  whose  house, 
the  largest  by  all  odds  hi  the  place,  was  filled  with 
the  Pekin  British  diplomats  and  retinue,  just  then. 
The  "  Astor  House,"  the  famous  hotel  of  the  place, 
established  by  some  California  Yankee  by  the  name 
of  Smith,  was  washed  out — billiard,  bar-room,  all. 
"  Come  with  us  in  the  gunboat,"  said  Frenchman 
and  Englishman,  both.  "  A  gunboat  is  no  place  for 
a  lady."  "  Go  back  with  me  to  Chefoo,"  said  the 
captain  of  the  Ocean.  "  The  fact  is,"  I  answered,  "I 
have  come  over  two  thousand  miles,  from  Yokohama, 
in  Japan,  only  to  see  Pekin ;  and  if  I  stay  here,  I 
shall  have  to  live  in  a  Chinese  sampan  (a  covered 
house-boat,  some  twenty  feet  long),  and  as  motion  is 
more  satisfactory  than  station,  to  Pekin  I  will  go." 
"  But  the  Russian  courier  has  just  been  robbed  en 
route  from  Pekin  to  our  Minister,  now  at  Chefoo," 
said  a  Russian  Secretary.  "  The  flood  is  making 
robbers  of  the  hungry  Chinese,"  it  was  added.  Nev- 
ertheless, on,  on  to  Pekin,  was  the  impulse  within 
me,  and  to  Pekin  I  will  go,  for  I  do  not  believe  the 
perils  held  up  before  me. 


LETTER  XYIII. 

.          ON,   TO  PEKIN. 

Arrival  at  Tang-Chow. — lodged  In  a  Temple. — Ice  in  Abundance  now. — On  to 
Pekin  that  Night— The  Gates  of  Pekin  at  Sunset.— The  Infernal  Koad  to  the 
Celestial  City,  in  a  Mule  Cart.— Bump,  Thump.— No  Getting  Out,  no  Living 
In. — The  Sights  on  the  Tung-Chow  and  Pekin  Eoad. — The  Wheelbarrow 
Gentry. — Caravans. — First  Sight  of  the  Bactrian  Camel. — The  Great  Walls  of 
the  City  after  Sunset. — What  John  Chinaman  thinks  of  an  American -dressed 
Woman  entering  his  Capital  in  an  Open  Sedan-chair. — Difference  of  Opinion 
as  to  Pekin  and  New  York  Fashions. — Happy  Welcome  in  the  Eussian  Lega- 
tion.— A  Cossack  Porter  opens  the  Great  Gates. 

PEKIN,  August  18,  1871. 

TuNG-Cnow,  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  from 
Tien-tsin  by  water,  not  eighty  by  land,  was  reached 
at  noon.  This  is  the  port  of  Pekin,  sixteen  miles, 
though,  and  very,  very  long  miles,  you  will  see.  Rus- 
sian letters,  written,  in  Chinese  to  Russian  agents 
here,  secured  us  excellent  lodgment  in  quite  a  grand 
temple,  where  we  expected  to  pass  the  night.  The 
Buddhist  priests  were  as  civil  as  lambs,  and  gave  us 
sacred  places  to  repose  in,  or  to  eat  ice  in,  the  great- 
est luxury  we  could  have  on  a  hot  day.  Ice,  by  the 
way,  here  is  "  cheap  as  dirt."  The  Peiho  and  the 
swamps  around  are  all  thick  ice  in  winter,  and  there 
is  no  luxury  like  it  to  an  American.  Besides,  all  the 
little  animalculae  in  Chinese  waters  are  thus  frozen 
up  and  frozen  out  in  winter,  and  you  can  safely  eat 


158  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

ice,  when  you  cannot  drink  the  water.  We  tumbled 
down  our  weary  limbs,  and  rested  close  by  the 
Buddhist  altars,  with  all  sorts  of  images  over  us  and 
about  us — dragons  and  other  scary  devils — but  no- 
thing could  scare  us  from  sleep,  rising,  as  we  had,  at 
four  in  the  morning,  and  roasting,  as  we  had  been, 
in  crowds  of  odoriferous  Tung-Chow  junks  with 
hundreds  of  the  population  looking  on,  marvelling 
where  such  creatures  as  we  are,  came  from.  These 
Chinese  temples,  by  the  way,  are  curious,  but  quite 
comfortable  structures  to  live  in.  The  entrance  is 
not  exhilarating — through  the  kitchen,  and  near  by 
all  the  washing  utensils,  through  crowds  eating, 
drinking,  and  smoking ;  but  when  in,  there  is  mag- 
nificence in  some  temples,  certainly  in  parts  of  this. 

To  Pekin,  on  to  Pekin,  however,  was  yet  the 
burning  impulse  within  me,  and  I  was  bent,  if  pos- 
sible, in  crossing  the  only  sixteen  miles,  and  on  being 
that  night  in  Pekin.  At  three  o'clock  they  told  me, 
"  If  you  go,  you  can't  get  into  the  gates  of  Pekin  to- 
night." "  What,  not  get  over  sixteen  miles,"  said  I, 
"from  three  o'clock  to  sunset?"  "You  will  be 
brought  up  all  standing,"  it  was  added,  "  at  the 
closed  gates  of  Pekin,  and  be  compelled  to  sleep  on 
the  road,  in  the  dirt,  and  amid  the  vermin  of  the 
gateway."  "  On  to  Pekin !  "  said  I ;  "  on,  on  to 
Pekin  ! "  Three  carts,  the  springless  ones  I  have 
spoken  of,  were  hired  for  me  and  my  traps,  and  a 
young  lady  with  me,  was  put  in  a  sedan-chair,  carried 
by  four  coolies.  The  sedan-chair  was  loaned  me  in 


ON,  TO  PEKIN.  159 

Tien-tsin,  and  brought  up  on  a  sampan;  and  we 
started  for  Pekin,  the  great  celestial  capital,  the 
earthly  home  of  an  emperor  that  Heaven  has  loaned 
to  govern  and  to  bless  the  millions  upon  millions 
of  mortals  in  China. 

Some  two  or  three  hundred  years  gone  by,  some 
emperor  of  China  (plague  on  him !)  took  it  into  his 
head  to  make  a  road  of  granite  blocks,  some  five  or 
six  feet  long  by  two  wide,  upon  a  raised  mound  of 
earth,  over  the  sixteen  miles  of  distance  from  the 
port  of  Pekin  to  Pekin  itself.  It  was  the  Appian 
Way  to  the  Chinese  Rome.  It  was  a  New  York 
Boulevard — a  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  as  recently  made 
in  Washington.  But,  alas  for  me,  in  my  mule  cart, 
with  no  springs,  the  granite-road  has  not  been  re- 
paired for  two  hundred  years,  or  more,  and  "  the  Ap- 
pian Way  "  has  dropped  out,  and  dropped  in,  to  such 
an  extent  that  only  a  mule  could  navigate  a  cart  over 
it,  or  through  it.  The  Turks  have  nearly  such  a 
road  now,  leading  to  Jerusalem,  but  no  Turk  was 
ever  fool  enough,  as  are  the  Chinese,  to  put  carts  on 
it!  There  was  just  such  a  road,  some  years  ago, 
between  Acquia  Creek  and  Fredericksburg,  Ya., 
but  the  Yirginians  were  never  blockheads  enough  to 
pave  it.  I  have  ridden  over  corduroy  roads  in  Maine, 
in  rough  wooden  spring  wagons ;  through  black  mud 
prairies,  in  olden  times,  in  Illinois ;  over  mountain 
passes  in  Nevada ;  but  never,  never,  over  such  an  in- 
famous, infernal  hewn  granite  quarry  as  this,  all 
topsy-turvy.  "  JBump"  that,  hit  the  shoulder,  and 


160  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

made  me  shiver  all  over.  "  Thump"  that,  was  only 
the  ribs.  "Bump,"  "thump,"  "smash,"  "crash," 
that,  hit  me  on  the  head,  and  made  my  eyes  sparkle 
like  rockets  !  Hat  off,  and  then  off  guard,  while  fit- 
ting it  on  again,  came  another  "  thump,"  "  bump." 
Hands  give  out  holding  on,  wrists  ache.  "Whew  !  there 
goes  my  head  again,  up  against  the  sides.  "  Let  me 
out,"  says  I.  .  Mule  nor  Chinaman  understands  Eng- 
lish !  I  was  afraid  to  break  my  legs,  if  the  cart  did 
not  stop,  when  I  was  getting  out.  Thump,  bump — in 
short,  it  was  sixteen  long,  endless  miles  of  "  bump," 
"  thump,"  "  smash,"  "  crash,"  such  as  the  Spanish 
Inquisition  only  inflicted  upon  heretics,  save  only  the 
breaking  of  their  bones.  I  am  only  jelly,  thank  a 
good  Providence.  Every  bone  is  where  it  was.  But 
I  would  not  take  another  such  drive  for  one  hundred 
dollars  per  mile. 

Emerging  from  Tung-Chow,  where  the  Russian 
and  Mongolian  caravans  start  with  teas  for  Russia, 
on  the  Siberian  route,  we  first  were  "  stuck  "  on  the 
Broadway  of  Tung-Chow — a  way  about  ten  feet 
broad  !  The  wheelbarrow  gentry — one  man  wheel- 
ing, on  one  wheel,  two  men  holding  on,  steadying 
the  burden  on  either  side,  and  one  mule  pulling 
ahead — blocked  up  the  great  street  of  Tung-Chow. 
Our  drivers  and  the  wheelbarrow  men,  laden  with 
goods  for  Pekin,  bellowed  and  yelled,  and  thus 
cleared  the  way,  in  part,  after  near  an  hour's  delay 
in  reaching  the  outer  gates  of  this  walled  city.  The 
sidewalks,  a  foot  or  two  wide,  were  high  up,  and  we, 


ON,  TO  PEKIN.  161 

in  the  street,  were  low  down,  in  mud  and  mire,  often, 
there  wallowing  like  hogs.  My  cart  was  water-tight, 
and  no  matter,  therefore,  for  the  splash.  It  was  well 
covered,  mule  and  all,  and  no  matter,  therefore,  for 
the  blazing  hot  sun.  Donkeys  brayed  hard  in  our 
ears,  but  no  matter  for  that.  The  Bactrian  camel, 
with  his  sprawl  feet,  all  the  way  from  the  Mongolian 
deserts,  obtruded  his  ugly  neck  into  our  presence,  but 
no  matter  for  that.  Every  thing  was  strange,  new, 
and  novel ;  and  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  tears  in  my 
eyes,  started  by  the  eternal  banging  of  the  springless 
cart,  the  journey  would  have  been  delightful.  We 
crossed  the  great  dragon  bridge,  where  a  French 
general  won  his  hard-pronounced  title  of  duke  of 
something.  The  graves  of  "  our  ancestors  "  were  in- 
numerable, and  pretty  well  kept.  Temples  there 
were,  and  not  a  few.  Houses  lined  the  road  almost 
the  whole  way,  and  coolies,  and  mandarins,  and  serv- 
ants, and  farmers  so  filled  up  the  road,  that  it  would 
have  been  hopeless  to  try  to  count  them. 

At  last,  when  the  sun  was  set,  and  darkness  cov- 
ered the  face  of  the  earth,  we  approached  the  great 
walls  of  the  great  city  of  a  million  or  two  millions 
of  people — nobody  knows,  or  seems  to  know  here,  for 
the  census  has  not  been  taken  for  over  fifty  years. 
Our  servant-pigeon-English  interpreter  had  shot 
ahead  before  dark,  and  on  announcing,  with  gravity, 
"  great  people  were  coming  on,  under  a  Russian 
escort,  with  Russian  protection,  bound  to  the  Russian 
Legation  " — lo,  presto  !  the  heavy  gates  were  open, 


162  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

and  we  were  let  in.  All  Chinamen,  except  ours, 
were  shut  out ;  and  thus,  for  the  first  time  in  my  life, 
I  found  use  in  trousers,  hat,  coat,  and  shoes,  over  the 
more  natural  habiliments  of  the  wiser-clad  Eastern 
man — for  the  first  sight  of  us  proved  to  the  gate- 
keeper we  were  a  race  of  European  men,  and  doubt- 
less, as  he  thought,  Russians.  Once  in  the  gates, 
then  scenes  ensued.  The  four  coolies  who  had 
brought  the  young  lady's  sedan-chair,  mile  upon  mile, 
needed  rest,  and  took  it  within  the  gates.  When 
they  set  down  the  chair,  hundreds  upon  hundreds 
gathered  about  it,  as  if  to  see  a  mermaid,  with  flow- 
ing ringlets,  thus  gliding  through  these  gates.  The 
crowd  became  first  stifling,  then  earnestly  curious, 
not  only  to  see,  but  to  feel  of  the  novelty.  They 
were  greedy  to  know  what  such  a  funny  thing  was 
made  of — whether  of  wax,  or  poplin,  or  muslin. 
Lanterns  went  up  in  all  directions ;  the  crowd  in- 
creased, and  grew  more  curiously  noisy.  I  acted  as 
policeman,  looked  amiably  terrible,  with  only  an 
umbrella  for  a  baton ;  but  the  umbrella  was  wand 
enough  to  keep  the  peace.  I  did  not  much  marvel 
over  the  curious  Chinamen.  "What  would  "New  York 
think,  if  a  Chinese  woman,  with  her  little  bits  of 
tiny  bird-like  feet,  were  dropped  down  on  Broadway  ? 
And  yet,  our  ringlets,  our  flowing  frocks,  our  queer, 
strange  top-knots  that  the  world  calls  bonnets,  the 
broad,  emblazoned,  unveiled  face,  are  more  astounding 
to  Chinese  eyes  than  the  little  bird  feet  of  the  Chinese 
women  are  to  ours.  American  women  have  not 


ON,   TO  PEKIN.  163 

often  enough  entered  the  streets  of  Pekin  to  accustom 
the  strange  spectacle  to  Chinese  eyes.  When  the 
sedan  and  its  burthen  re-started  on,  the  great  crowd 
sent  up  one  great  jeer,  and  I  did  not  much  blame 
them,  though  I  was  glad  to  be  rid  of  them,  and  to 
hide  in  the  darkness,  now  increasing. 

It  was  five  li,  nearly  two  miles,  from  the  gate  we 
entered  to  the  Eussian  Legation,  where  was  to  be  my 
hospitable  home.  The  American  Minister  has  gone 
to  Japan,  and  General  Vlangali,  the  Russian  minis- 
ter, now  absent  in  Chefoo,  ordered  his  house  to  be  our 
home.  Through  these  five  U,  in  the  now  muddy 
streets  of  Pekin,  we  were  a  long  time  wandering — 
now,  in  the  slough  of  despond,  and  now,  on  the  dry 
land.  Theatres  were  on  the  street  side.  Story-tellers 
filled  the  ways,  with  recitations  to  the  crowds,  holding 
lanterns.  Shops  were  brilliantly  illuminated.  Songs 
from  all  sides  seemed  to  be  pouring  out  from  the 
houses  of  a  happy  population.  At  last,  near  ten  p.  M., 
we  reached  the  Russian  Legation,  in  the  Tartar  part 
of  the  city,  all  walled  in ;  and  knocking  at  the  gate 
loudly,  we  startled  up  the  Cossack  porter,  and  soon 
were  welcomed  by  a  hospitable  meal,  and,  what  was 
more  important  to  us  then,  hospitable  beds. 


LETTER  XIX. 

THE  JOURNEY  TO  PEKIN. 

How  he  got  to  Pekin  in  a  Springless  Cart,  over  a  Granite-Paved  Imperial  Bead, 
Thirteen  Miles  long  when  first  made,  and  passable,  now  thirty,  or  more,  from 
the  Holes  in  it,  and  the  Crooks  to  dodge  these  Holes. — Bones  all  aching  from 
Pounding,  but  Bone-Pounding  Good  Medicine  at  Times.— The  Fit-Out  for  the 
Eiver  Peiho  Journey  in  Sampans. — Hospitality  of  the  Tien-tsiners. — Bad  "Water. 
— Must  Liquor  or  Tea. — Dead  Chinamen  by  millions,  and  Graves  everywhere 
bad  for  Wells.— Catalogue  of  a  Peiho  Boat  Outfit— The  Terrors  of  the  Route  all 
exaggerated. — The  High  Water  a  Help. — Cut  across  Lots. — The  Supplies  en 
route. — Beggars. — A  not  Disagreeable  Journey. — All  Sleeping  Unprotected. — 
No  Keal  Perils. — Coolie  Comforts. — Sights  on  the  Eiver. — British  Manufactures. 
— The  Cock  keeps  Time  for  the  Coolie  in  the  Morning. — life  in  a  Junk. — Toi- 
lettes there. — The  Countless  Babies  here. 

PEKIN,  August  18,  18Y1. 

EVEEY  bone  in  me  aches.  I  am  black  and  blue, 
nearly  all  over !  What  importance,  ask  you,  per- 
haps, is  that  to  the  public  ?  Why,  to  keep  the  pub- 
lic at  home,  minding  their  own  business,  not  making 
fools  of  themselves,  as  I  am,  in  being  pounded  and 
pestled  here,  with  muscles  aching  and  brains  half 
beaten  out !  "  Fools  go  to  Pekin,  wise  men  stay  at 
home,"  is  my  conclusion  to-day,  after  my  adventures 
of  yesterday,  over  a  Chinese  granite-paved  road,  in  a 
springless  cart,  drawn  by  a  mule,  in  a  straight  line, 
two  miles  an  hour — in  the  crooked  line,  three  or  four 
miles  (by  these  holes),  but  up  and  down,  five  or  six 
miles  per  hour.  Nevertheless,  I  feel  all  the  better  for 
this  pounding  internally,  though  externally  I  groan 
every  step  I  take.  It  is  good  for  the  torpid  liver  this 


THE  JOURNEY  TO  PEKIN.  165 

climate  creates.  It  stirs  up  the  bile,  is  superb  for  di- 
gestion, and  capital  for  the  dyspepsia.  The  best 
medicine  we  house,  home,  newspaper-scribbling  men 
can  take  at  times,  I  am  sure,  is  such  a  stirring  up. 
If  the  Shanghai  doctor  had  given  me  a  Chinese  cart 
to  ride  in,  over  a  Chinese  granite  road,  I  should  not 
have  half  died  over  his  boluses,  nostrums,  and  liquid 
concoctions.  I  feel  to-day  as  if  I  could  eat  Pekin  up 
in  a  week,  and  all  this  comes,  I  am  sure,  from  the 
pounding  of  my  flesh  and  bones. 

Well,  come  back  with  me  to  Tien-tsin.  When 
the  good  European  people  of  this  drowned-out  city 
heard  me  crying,  "  On  to  Pekin,"  despite  the  flood, 
and  when  they  saw  the  sampan  boats,  with  the  boat- 
men all  engaged  to  go,  their  hospitality,  in  pity  for 
our  rashness,  became  unbounded.  The  captain  of  the 
British  gunboat  Lieven  loaned  us  beds  and  bedding, 
and  gave  us  a  big  cask  of  water,  condensed  and  puri- 
fied by  his  steam-engine.  And,  by  the  way,  this  is 
no  country,  this  never  can  be  a  country  for  temperance 
men,  unless  you  are  born  and  brought  up,  from  youth 
and  childhood,  to  drinking  mud,  or  water  without 
mud,  full  of  little  live  creatures,  that  dance  about 
so  briskly  in  the  well  water  that  you  cannot  get  rid 
of  them.  All  of  us  Maine-born  men  here,  captains 
of  steamboats,  and  all,  abjure  water  and  the  Maine 
law.  We  drink  it  boiled  and  flavored  with  tea ;  but 
the  pure  article,  as  handed  over  to  us  by  the  Creator, 
never  enters  our  mouths.  The  fact  is,  China  is  so 
dirty,  so  full  of  the  essence  of  dead  ancestors'  bones, 


166 


A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 


that  even  the  wells  are  impure.  Tour  hundred  mill- 
ions of  Chinamen,  dying  generation  after  generation, 
seem  to  poison  and  corrupt  all  the  streams.  Hence, 
I  was  under  great  obligations  to  the  captain  of  the 
Lieven  for  his  big  beaker  of  water.  But  what  would 
not  I  give  now,  even,  for  a  cupful  of  pure  mountain 
iced  water,  like  that,  say,  which  runs  gurgling 
through  Salt  Lake  City,  or,  that  comes  trickling 
down  from  the  snowy  sides  of  the  mountains  of  Ore- 
gon. A  dollar  a  cupful  would  be  cheap,  very  cheap 
to  me ;  but,  nevertheless,  I  drink,  thankful,  for  the 
manufactured  water,  in  tea,  in  claret,  in  porter,  beer, 
Rhine  wine,  or  any  liquor  that  can  be  got,  bourbon 
and  brandy  not  excepted. 

Should  you  like  to  see  the  outfit  our  new  Tien- 
tsin friends  provided  for  us,  to  ascend  the  Peiho,  I 
give  it  for  the  benefit  of  future  travellers  here : 


Crackers,  tins 2 

Sardines,  boxes 3 

Strawberries,  can 1 

French  preserves,  cans 2 

Sugar,  tin 1 

Tea,  tin 1 

Cheese 1 

Pickles,  bottle 1 

Vinegar,  bottle \ 

Roast  turkey,  tin 1 

Cold  meat,  dish 1 

Soup,  cans 6 

Condensed  milk,  cans 2 


Peaches,  cans •  S 

Candles 6 

Salt,  pepper,  mustard,  can 1 

Cakes,  assorted. 

Sponge  cake. 

Ice  in  abundance. 

Ketchup. 

Matches. 

Corkscrews. 

Teapots. 

Towels. 

Napkins. 

Eggs— 


with  tumblers,  cups,  saucers,  plates,  saucepans,  pitch- 
ers, soap,  wash-basins,  and  other  things  too  numerous 
to  mention,  but  all  useful  to  new  housekeepers,  in  a 
sampan  boat,  going,  one  knew  not,  how  or  where. 


THE  JOURNEY  TO  PEKIN. 

The  "  sack  "  was  more  abundant,  if  possible,  than  the 
provender  (particulars  omitted),  and  if  we  run  hun- 
gry, we  could  not  well  run  dry,  even  if  we  were 
twenty  days,  as  some  predicted,  in  poling  or  tracking 
up  this  now  turbulent  Peiho.  Other  friends  loaned 
us  mosquito  nets  and  pillows,  and  thus  provided  us 
to  meet  the  outer  enemy  as  well  as  to  supply  the 
inner  man.  "No  traveller,  even  up  the  Nile,  could 
have  been  better  supplied  for  a  long  journey. 

And  it  has  not  been  much  of  a  journey  after  all — 
only  four  and  a  half  days  up  to  Tung  Chow,  the  head 
of  Peiho  junk  navigation,  and  a  half  day  more  over- 
land, rather  over  stones,  to  Pekin  !  "We  paid  our  cool- 
ies extra  to  pole  hard,  track  quick,  or  row  with  zeal ; 
and  the  very  high  water,  in  lieu  of  being  a  disadvan- 
tage, turned  out  to  be  an  advantage — for  we  cut 
across  lots,  here,  there,  and  everywhere,  through 
fields  of  sorghum,  by  acres  of  millet,  through  sesa- 
mum,  and  castor  beans,  and  Indian  corn,  so  that  I  do 
not  believe  we  sailed  over  a  hundred  miles,  though 
the  distance  by  the  banks  of  the  river  is  reported  one 
hundred  and  twenty,  from  Tien-tsin  to  Tung  Chow. 
We  reached  half-way,  Ho-si-Woo,  in  two  days  and  a 
half — the  hardest  half,  though.  Our  Chinese  servant 
boy,  who,  with  his  "  pidgen  English,"  acted  as  inter- 
preter, cooked  for  us,  and  bought  what  he  could  for 
us  from  the  bluffs  of  the  unwashed-out  part  of  the 
country.  We  bought  chickens,  but  we  could  not  eat 
them,  they  were  so  fishy.  (They  feed  them  on  fish.) 
We  had  made  the  nicest  of  omelets — not  with  butter, 


168  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

or  milk,  but  with,  I  fear,  the  oil  of  the  castor  bean, 
or  sesamum.  "  Like'e  lice  ? "  our  cook  interpreter 
boy  often  asked.  I  always  said  "yes;"  but  don't 
marvel,  for  the  Chinaman  ever  turns  "  E, "  into  "  L," 
and  rice  was  all  he  meant.  "  Bread  "  was  "  bled " 
— and  I  liked  "  bled  "  too.  Pidgen  English,  even,  is 
hard  English  to  understand,  till  you  have  been  long 
used  to  it;  but  we  are  becoming  accustomed  now. 
We  paid  only  fifteen  dollars  for  each  sampan  boat — 
double,  nearly,  the  usual  price — forty-five  dollars  for 
three  boats,  with  four  persons  to  work  and  to  wait 
in  each,  and  this  included  every  thing,  except  little 
cumshaws  (presents)  in  "cash,"  a  cash  being  some- 
thing like  a  farthing  in  value.  "Wherever  we  stopped, 
beggars  innumerable  turned  up,  or  salesmen  of  eggs, 
grapes,  peaches,  apples,  plums,  and  other  fruits.  We 
never  stopped  off  towns  or  villages  at  night ;  but  in 
fields  of  millet,  or  sorghum,  or  sesamum  we  anchored 
our  boats,  and  slept  as  well — the  hard  beds  excepted 
— as  if  we  had  been  in  our  own  homes.  Life,  how- 
ever, is  all  trust  here.  The  boats  were  all  open  to 
let  in  the  night  breezes.  The  coolies  slept  and 
snoozed  right  about  us.  There  were  no  watchmen 
to  protect  us.  I  never  carry  revolvers  in  travelling, 
for  I  think  they  are  more  likely,  in  the  rough  hand- 
ling they  have  on  such  voyages,  to  kill  you,  than  to 
aid  you  in  killing  anybody.  All  the  weapon  I  had 
was  a  dagger,  a  friend  insisted  upon  my  taking,  for 
some  short,  quick  fight,  if  one  should  become  neces- 
sary. The  Chinese,  however,  seem  to  be,  in  the 


THE  JOURNEY  TO  PEKIN.  169 

main,  too  honest  to  steal,  when  acting  as  servants 
about  you,  and  too  peaceable  to  fight ;  so  that  every- 
where I  have  felt  myself  as  safe  as  if  in  New  York, 
even  under  lock  and  key  there.  We  started  at  day- 
break, and  rowed  or  tracked  as  long  as  we  could  see 
— the  poor  coolies  in  water  almost  all  day,  but  happy 
at  night,  in  their  improvised  suppers,  when  rolled  up 
in  their  padded  comforters,  to  sleep  ;  and  they  prob- 
ably get  not  even  two  dollars  from  the  owner  of  the 
bpat,  who  gave  them  this  four  and  a  half  days  of  em- 
ploy. From  fifteen  cents  to  twenty  cents  per  day  is 
coolie  boatmen's  pay  on  the  Peiho,  with  the  privi- 
lege of  working  eighteen  hours  in  mud  and  water, 
and  finding  one's  self.  This,  however,  pretty  well 
supplies  his  wants.  Their  clothing  is  cheap  and 
sparse — only  cotton  cloth — and  their  food  is  millet 
and  fish,  when  the  latter  can  be  got. 

The  boat  sights  we  saw  on  the  Peiho  were  many, 
the  land  sights  few,  and  they  were  nearly  all  in,  or 
under  water.  Many,  many  junks  were  floating  down 
the  rapid  current  of  the  river ;  some  of  them,  stylish, 
three  stories  high,  with  flags,  and  handsome  exte- 
riors, but  the  great  body  of  them,  transports.  The 
foreigners'  coasting  trade  ends  at  Tien-tsin,  and  the 
native  craft  is  exclusive  from  thence  upward  and  in- 
ward, and  all  about.  The  transportation  upward  was 
mainly  British  Manchester  goods,  with  which  many 
a  junk  seemed  to  be  laden.  Once  we  had  a  lion's 
share  of  this  great  trade,  and  the  cotton  goods  of 
Lowell,  and  Lawrence,  and  Lewiston,  and  Bidde- 


170  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

ford  were  floating  freely  upon  these  waters,  for  Chi- 
nese consumption,  in  company  with  these  British 
drills,  sheetings,  and  shirtings ;  but  now,  my  Yankee 
manufacturing  countrymen  have  so  constructed  their 
tariff  laws  as  to  destroy  all  this,  and  to  give  the  whole 
to  John  Bull  and  the  Germans.  Do  not  tell  me  of 
cheaper  labor  in  England ;  for,  if  "  that's  what  did 
it,"  nobody  could  compete  with  the  ten  cents  a  day 
Chinese  manufacture  of  their  own  cotton.  Steam 
could  be  as  cheap  a  workman  with  us  as  in  England, 
if  our  Yankee  countrymen  did  not  love  high  duties 
on  coal,  and  fish  and  potatoes  (largely  their  food),  and 
on  machinery  and  the  raw  material  for  machinery  of 
all  kinds.  But,  whew  !  I'm  shooting  off  on  a  tariff 
tangent ! 

Among  the  boat  sights  on  a  Chinese  river  is  the 
everlasting  cock,  who  is  ever  kept  there  to  do  cock- 
a-doodle-doo  in  the  early  morning,  and  thus  to  note 
the  time,  and  to  wake  up  the  crew.  At  the  cock- 
crow all  start  from  their  lairs,  and  go  to  work.  The 
cocks  are  probably  well-taught  cocks — taught  only  to 
crow  when  the  day  is  breaking.  With  the  cock  are 
hens,  and  with  the  hens,  dogs,  cats,  etc.,  a  whole 
menagerie.  Life  on  a  junk  is  just  like  life  on  land, 
with  the  doors  more  open,  though.  We  see  the  Chi- 
nese women  making  their  toilettes,  and  the  men 
combing  their  own  hair,  and  then  binding  on  their 
long  boughten  cues.  The  longer  a  cue  is  in  Chi- 
na, the  greater  "the  swell;"  hence,  false  hair  is 
more  for  sale  to  men  than  to  women.  "  I  can't  em- 


THE  JOURNEY  TO  PEKIN. 

ploy  you  with  that  cue,"  said  a  Russian  friend  of 
mine,  the  other  day,  to  a  Chinese  boy,  with  a  short 
tail.  "  I  have  no  money  to  buy  more,"  said  the  boy. 
"  Take  that,  then,  for  a  fit-out,  and  turn  up  grand." 
The  boy  took  the  money,  and  turned  up  with  a  tail 
that  stretched  to  the  ground.  We  see  all  these  toil- 
ette operations  going  on — combing,  washing,  braid- 
ing ;  and  we  hear  ^-braiding,  too — scolding,  I 
mean.  Never  were  greater  scolds  than  these  Chi- 
nese boatmen  seem  to  be.  Their  monosyllabic  words 
have  a  terrible  ring,  when  they  are  mad  —  short, 
sharp,  cutting.  There  was  a  row  on  my  boat.  A  big 
fellow  beat  his  brother,  a  lesser  fellow.  The  little 
fellow  smothered  his  rage  till  we  reached  a  bluff,  and 
then  ran  away ;  but  the  father,  in  another  boat  near 
by,  ran  after  him,  and  though  the  father  could  never 
have  overtaken  the  little  fellow,  by  running,  yet  such 
is  the  force  of  parental  authority  here,  over  children, 
that  only  his  command  from  a  long  distance  brought 
back  the  runaway.  The  row  that  then  ensued  be- 
tween the  brothers,  the  father  all  the  while  interfer- 
ing, became  so  boisterous  that  I  thought  it  wise  to 
show  my  dagger  to  keep  the  peace.  I  did  not  un- 
sheath  it,  only  stamped  and  yelled,  and  that  restored 
order  in  the  boat  fleet. 

One  of  the  first  things  impressing  a  traveller  in 
China  is  the  babies,  the  countless  babies.  Mai  thus, 
evidently,  is  not  read  here,  or  the  new  New  England 
native  American  non-propagation  creed.  "  Multiply 
and  replenish  the  earth,"  in  our  Bible,  is,  in  the  Con- 


172  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

fucian  classics,  in  another  paraphrase,  "  Beget  chil- 
dren, to  be  sure  of  having  your  bones  well  taken 
care  of."  "  The  more  sons  you  have,  the  better  off 
you  are  in  heaven."  Girl  babies,  however,  alas  for 
the  poor  things,  are  deemed  rather  curses  than  bless- 
ings, more  especially  if  you  have  too  many  of  them 
— such  curses,  that  often  the  little  lasses  are  tumbled 
away  to  perish — boy  babies,  never.  All  the  junks 
we  passed,  or  saw,  were  more  or  less  filled  with  ba- 
bies— naked  babies,  mixed  up  with  the  cocks,  and 
hens,  and  dogs,  and  kittens.  Fathers  were  as  often 
fondling  them  as  the  mothers.  This  love  of  babies, 
it  is,  that  makes  up  the  Chinese  countless  numbers, 
ever  populating  the  land,  and  forcing  the  poor  often 
to  starve,  or  to  live  on  kitten  cutlets  and  puppy 
steaks.  What  we  saw  people  eating  most  of,  on  our 
boat  journey,  were  watermelons,  pretty  good  ones ; 
a  species  of  cantelopes,  that  they  nibble,  as  monkeys 
would ;  then  peaches,  that  nobody  else  could  eat, 
they  are  so  bad— with  onions,  onions,  onions  innu- 
merable. Indeed,  the  whole  population  hereabout 
seems  saturated  with  onions  and  opium. 


LETTEE  XX. 

FROM  PEKIN. 

The  Gnide-Books  of  Pekin. — The  "Ji-hia-kieu-wen-kau"  and  the  "Chen-yuen-chi- 
lio."— Three  Cities  within  Pekin,  the  Manchu  or  Tartar,  Chinese,  and  Imperial. — 
Shopping  in  Pekin. — Great  Fur  Market. — Mongolia,  Manchuria,  Corea,  and  Sibe- 
ria Sables,  Ermine,  etc.,  etc. — Precious  Stones. — Jade. — Greek  Chapel  on  the 
Grounds  of  the  Russian  Legation. — Life  among  Chinese  Russians. —  Catholic 
and  Protestant  Missionaries  in  Pekin. — Visit  to  the  Eoman  Catholic  Cathedral. — 
French  Priests  and  Sisters  of  Charity. — School  for  Chinese  Children. — Money 
and  the  Missionaries.-?  Conflicts  between  them.  —  Foreign  and  Anti-Foreign 
Party  in  China. — Chinese  Efforts  to  create  Prejudice  against  Christians. 

PEKIN,  August  20,  18T1. 

WHEN  you  first  get  into  a  new,  great  city,  you 
ask  for  maps  and  a  guide-book.  Maps  I  have  none, 
save  in  a  Hong-Kong  guide-book,  but  works  on  Pe- 
kin are  numerous.  The  "  Ji-hia-kieu-wen-kau  "  is 
before  me — one  hundred  and  sixty  chapters  only — 
four  chapters  on  the  beauties  of  Pekin  (I  can't  see 
them  yet ; — it  seems  to  me  an  infernal  hole — no  side- 
walks, no  gutters,  the  privies  in  the  streets,  in  open 
sinks,  and  the  accumulated  filth  of  centuries  rising 
up  in  terrific  stenches ;  through  mud  over  boots  two 
and  a  half  or  three  feet  long) ; — twenty  chapters  on 
the  public  buildings  (I  am  going  to  hunt  them  up) ; 
eleven,  on  the  palace  of  the  emperor  (no  outside  bar- 
barian like  me  is  ever  permitted  to  enter  that  sanctum, 
there) ;  one  chapter  on  a  large  monastery,  containing 


A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

one  thousand  one  hundred  Lama  priests ;  four  chap- 
ters on  the  Imperial  city ;  twelve  on  the  Tartar  city, 
The  Confucian  temple  has  two  chapters.  Then, 
there  are  three  more  on  the  ten  stone  drums,  three 
thousand  years  old.  As  the  "  Ji-hia-kieu-wen-kau  " 
is  all  in  Chinese,  reading  backward  and  upside  down, 
I  fear  I  shall  not  profit  much  by  it  in  my  ardent  pur- 
suit for  knowledge  under  difficulties  in  Pekin.  "  Chen- 
yuen-chi-lip  "  is  another  guide-book  here,  only  eight 
volumes !  It  tells,  not  me,  but  the  Chinaman,  who  tells 
me,  that  "  I  can  visit  the  principal  objects  of  interest 
in  a  month,"  but  even  then  shall  obtain  only  very 
imperfect  ideas  !  I  have  only  a  week,  two  weeks  at 
the  most,  for  staring,  shopping,  curio-hunting.  "What, 
then,  can  I  see  in  or  about  these  twenty-five  square 
miles,  within  the  walls  ? 

My  first  outstart  has  been,  under  the  auspices  of 
a  clever  young  Englishman,  who  speaks  Chinese  suffi- 
ciently— a  student  interpreter  of  the  British  legation, 
preparing  himself  for  future  Chinese  consulships — 
into  the  Chinese  city.  The  legations  are  all  in  the 
Manchu  or  Tartar  city.  There  are  three  cities  with- 
in a  city — the  heart,  the  Palace,  the  Castle  city,  the 
sanctum  sanctorum  of  Chinese  autocracy,  where  the 
Emperor  of  Heaven  and  Earth  sits  and  breathes, 
nearly  all  alone  by  himself,  save  with  his  wives  and 
concubines — the  Imperial  city,  this  is  called.  Then 
the  Tartar  city,  where  the  Manchu  or  Tartar  popu- 
lation reside.  Then  the  Chinese  city,  the  city  of  the 
Tartar  or  Manchu-governed  Chinese — for  the  Man- 


FROM  PEE^N.  175 

chus  or  Tartars,  only  a  few  hundred  years  gone  by, 
you  may  remember,  if  anybody  ever  cares  to  know, 
overflowed  the  great  wall,  and  then  ran  over  all 
China.  We  went  a-shopping !  Where  did  a  woman 
ever  go  that  she  did  not  go  a-shopping — that  she  did 
not  want  something,  and  to  buy  something  ?  I  found 
that  out,  years  and  years  ago,  on  the  Upper  Lakes, 
even  among  the  then  Pottawotamies,  and  in  Van- 
couver, and  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  Gibraltar ;  every- 
where, the  women  must  go  a-shopping.  Pekin,  I  had 
fancied,  had  not  a  temptation  on  earth  for  shopping ; 
but  what  a  blunder  I  made  the  moment  I  was  intro- 
duced into  the  shops  of  the  Chinese  city.  This  is 
one  of  the  greatest  fur  markets  in  the  world.  Mon- 
golia, Manchuria,  and  Corea,  as  well  as  Siberia,  send 
down  here  their  sables,  their  ermines,  their  leopard 
and  tiger  skins,  the  white  fox,  and  gray  fox,  and  all 
other  species  of  furs.  The  climate  is  fiercely  cold 
here  in  winter,  and,  fuel  being  scarce  and  costly,  the 
mandarins  and  wealthy  classes  wrap  themselves  up 
in  sables  and  ermines,  while  the  poorer  classes  put 
on  sheepskins.  The  market  is  tempting.  Sables, 
the  best  skins,  can  be  had  from  five  to  seven  Mexican 
dollars  each ;  a  mandarin's  sable  robe  from  two  hun- 
dred to  five  hundred  Mexican  dollars,  often  even  less ; 
ermine  mantelets  for  about  twenty-five  and  thirty 
dollars,  with  leopards,  tigers,  and  foxes  in  propor- 
tion. But  "cheating"  is  a  Chinese  as  well  as  Euro- 
pean art.  The  furriers  color  and  dye  their  sables, 
and  who  can  tell  ?  Not  I.  Look  out  that  you  don't 


170  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

buy  cats  in  lieu  of  ermines.  I  hinted  I  might  buy  a 
mandarin  sable  robe.  And  now,  though  the  ther- 
mometer is  about  ninety,  I  have  been  enveloped,  sur- 
rounded, tormented  by  furriers  ever  since,  and  buried 
up  in  my  rooms  table  high  with  all  sorts  of  furs  from 
the  steppes  of  Siberia,  the  forests  of  Manchuria,  and 
Corea,  and  the  deserts  of  Mongolia.  Curios — that 
is,  Pekin  curiosities — have  been  rushed  in  upon  my 
rooms,  by  Chinese,  in  platoons.  "  Precious  stones," 
such  as  rubies,  sapphires,  amethysts,  etc.,  were  spread 
before  me  in  abundance.  (Don't  buy,  you  are  sure 
to  be  cheated.)  Jade,  however,  seems  to  be  the  pre- 
cious stone  of  China,  not  much  valued  with  us,  un- 
less it  be  in  little  cups,  but  here  costly,  next  to  sap- 
phires. The  fact  is,  China,  or  rather  this,  the  court 
city  of  China,  is  getting  poor,  and  is  selling  out  its 
old  curios,  its  sables,  etc.,  etc.  I  have  half  a  mind 
to  turn  merchant,  and  to  rush  home  heavily  laden 
with  furs  for  Gunther  &  Co.,  and  precious  stones  for 
Tiffany  &  Co.,  or  Ball  &  Black.  I  have  no  doubt  I 
could  pay  expenses  ten  times  over — but  I  am  going, 
just  now,  not  home,  but  to  the  great  wall ;  and  I 
ha~ve  not  yet  given  up  Mongolia  and  the  camel, 
Siberia,  the  Baikal,  and  Ural  Mountains,  and  the 
route  Europeward,  overland,  through  Asia.  "Where 
does  not"  a  man  want  go,  when  he  begins  to  go? 
"What  end  of  the  passion  for  going,  when  one  once 
begins  ?  .  .  . 

It  is  the  Sabbath,  and,  amid  Kussian  surround- 
ings, with  a  beautiful  Greek  chapel  near  my  rooms, 


FROM  TEK1N. 

I  ought  to  worship  in  that  Greek  church,  but  the 
priests  have  departed  with  the  ambassador,  and  the 
chapel  is  closed.  Formerly,  a  Russian  Archiman- 
drite held  possession  of  this  now  beautiful  spot,  who, 
in  addition  to  his  duties  of  ecclesiastic,  took  care  of 
the  political  interests  of  Russia ;  but  in  1859,  when 
the  new  treaties  were  made,  an  ambassador,  not  an 
ecclesiastic,  was  appointed,  with  full  powers.  A 
magnificent  establishment  was  created  for  him,  and 
the  priest  departed  to  another  part  of  the  city. 
French  is  our  language  of.  intercourse  with  the  stu- 
dent interpreters,  dragomans,  and  secretaries,  left 
here ;  and,  as  the  Chinese  servants  speak  only  Rus- 
sian, not  "pidgen  English,"  even,  we  manage  to 
have  from  them,  by  pantomime,  all  we  need — with  a 
few  Chinese  words,  every  day  increasing,  represent- 
ing the  necessaries  of  life. 

There  is  an  English  church,  on  the  English  lega- 
tion grounds,  near  by,  where  we  were  invited  to  go ; 
anxi  there  are  several  Protestant  missionaries  in  Pe- 
kin — but  the  Roman  Catholics  had  such  large  estab- 
lishments here,  and  their  history  for  three  centuries 
in  China  had  been  so  great  and  brilliant,  that  I  re- 
solved to  see  them  worship  on  the  Sabbath  day.  The 
distance  was  nearly  three  miles,  and  the  service  be- 
gan at  eight  A.  M.  ;  and  a  fit-out  to  go  anywhere  in 
roadless  Pekin  is  so  serious  a  matter — to  rally  the 
coolies  for  the  chairs,  the  ponies,  etc. — that,  no  won- 
der, the  service  was  nearly  over  when  we  got  there. 

The  French  priests,  however,  most  graciously  re- 
9 


178  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

ceived  us,  and  welcomed  with  warm  hearts  European 
faces  from  so  distant  a  region  as  America,  and  the 
Sisters  of  Charity  came  out  in  full  numbers  and 
showed  us  all  parts  of  their  great  establishment. 
The  Chinese  children,  some  two  hundred  and  fifty 
in  number,  "  all  Christians  now,"  were  drawn  up  for 
us  to  see.  Their  nice  embroideries,  as  well  as  their 
spinning  and  weaving,  were  shown  us.  These  good 
Sisters  seemed  to  be  happy  in  their  isolation  and  their 
Christian  mission — happy  in  the  seed  they  were  sow- 
ing, and  the  harvest  they  were  reaping,  and  earnest 
for  the  propagation  of  the  faith  throughout  all  China. 
The  priests  wore  their  hair  as  the  Chinese  do,  and, 
but  for  their  priestly  robes,  would  be  taken  for 
Chinese.  The  Sisters  preserve  their  home  Catholic 
costumes.  The  cathedral  itself  is  a  wonderful  build- 
ing for  such  a  distance  from  civilization.  The  organ 
in  it  cost  some  forty  thousand  dollars  here.  Many 
Chinese  worshippers  were  about,  and  the  spacious 
grounds  seemed  to  be  teeming  with  Chinese  people, 
some  of  whom  were  Sisters  of  Charity,  too. 

There  is  a  great  conflict  now  going  on  in  this 
country,  not  only  between  the  Eoman  Catholic  mis- 
sionaries and  the  mandarins,  but  between  money  and 
the  missionaries,  Protestant  as  well  as  Catholic. 
The  almighty  dollar  feels  itself  damaged  by  the  ever- 
lasting pressure  which  the  missionaries  are  making 
upon  the  Chinese  government,  and  constantly  dooms 
them  to  some  bad  place.  Commerce  and  religion  do 
travel  together,  but  they  are  often  very  troublesome 


FROM  PEKIN.  179 

companions.  The  missionary,  especially  the  Catho- 
lic, asks  for  a  status  here,  the  exterritoriality,  it  may 
be,  of  the  Consulates,  or  a  sort  of  imperium  in  im- 
perio,  which  the  mandarins  refuse  to  yield.  The 
mandarins  declare,  now,  there  is  scarcely  a  Chinese 
rascal  that  does  not  turn  Christian  in  order  to  have 
missionary  protection  for  his  rascality.  The  money- 
men  live  in  constant  apprehension  that  these  charges, 
and  counter  charges,  and  prejudices  will  lead  to  an- 
other war.  A  quasi  foreign  party,  and  a  thoroughly 
anti-foreign  party,  exist  in  China.  All  think  for- 
eigners are  over-exacting,  overbearing,  and  insolent, 
in  which  respect  the  Chinese  are  not  far  from  right ; 
but  the  peace  party  in  China  want  no  more  war  with 
foreigners.  The  money-men  are  for  bearing,  and  for- 
bearing, with  Chinese  restrictions  upon  intercourse, 
and  trade,  and  with  Chinese  prejudices,  and  igno- 
rance, as  long  as  they  can  make  money,  while  the 
kingdom  of  Christianity  is  not  of  this  world,  but  is 
aggressive,  and  full  of  fight  with  Buddhism,  Lamaism, 
Tauism,  and  all  the  religious  isms  here. 

After  the  massacre  of  French  missionaries  at  Tien- 
tsin, Europeans  were  naturally  led  to  inquire  what 
has  produced  this  feeling  against  Christianity  ?  And 
this  brought  about  the  discovery  of  a  book  written- 
by  a  Chinaman  in  high  authority,  and  circulated  by 
mandarins  and  others  secretly. 

Extract  therefrom : 

"  This  religion  (meaning  Protestant  and  Catholic  both)  has 
its  headquarters  in  Italy.    It  has  a  succession  of  Kings  of  the 


180  A   SEVEN   MONTHS'  RUN. 

Church  (popes),  who  assume,  in  behalf  of  Heaven,  to  communi- 
cate instruction.  When  a  king  of  any  of  the  "Western  nations 
succeeds  to  the  throne,  he  receives  his  authority  to  rule  from 
the  pope.  In  all  important  matters  the  kings  receive  commands 
from  the  pope." 

Then  follow  accounts  of  the  conduct  of  priests, 
which  are  worse  than  any  thing  described  by  Maria 
Monk,  or  ever  imagined  in  the  English  language. 

"  In  case  of  funerals  (of  Chinamen),  this  religion's  teachers 
eject  all  relatives  and  friends  from  the  house,  and  the  corpse  is 
put  into  the  coffin  with  closed  doors,  both  eyes  are  secretly 
taken  out,  and  the  orifice  sealed  up  with  a  plaster." 

The  reason  for  extracting  the  eyes  is  this  : 

"From  one  hundred  pounds  of  Chinese  lead  can  be  ex- 
tracted eight  pounds  of  silver,  and  the  remaining  ninety-two 
pounds  of  lead  can  be  sold  at  the  original  cost.  But  the  only 
way  to  obtain  this  silver  is  by  compounding  the  lead  with  the 
eyes  of  Chinamen.  The  eyes  of  foreigners  are  of  no  use  for  this 
purpose." 

The  following  is  probably  the  reason  why  the 
Chinamen  beat  their  gongs  so  furiously  in  their  fights 
with  the  English  and  Americans : 

"Foreigners  have  the  art  of  cutting  out  paper  men  and 
horses,  and,  by  burning  charms  and  repeating  incantations, 
transforming  them  into  real  men  and  horses.  These  they  use 
to  terrify  their  enemies.  They  may,  however,  bo  dissolved  by 

beating  a  gong,  or  by  spouting  water  over  them In 

creating  a  man,  to  be  the  progenitor  of  the  human  race,  God 
ought  to  have  created  him  completely  virtuous  and  absolutely 
perfect,  and  even  then  there  would  have  been  danger  that  he 
would  not  be  able  to  transmit  his  virtues  to  his  descendants. 
Why  should  He  create  such  a  proud  and  wicked  man  as  Adam, 
and  allow  him  to  bring  suffering  upon  his  descendants  in  all 
generations?" 


FROM  PEKIN.  *  181 

These  extracts  give  but  the  faintest  idea  of  the 
abuses  and  misrepresentations  of  Christianity.  Fur- 
ther extracts  would  be  so  indecent,  or  infidelistic,  as 
not  to  bear  publication.  The  object  of  the  work  was 
avowed  to  be  "  the  expulsion  of  the  race  human," 
that  is,  the  European  species  from  all  parts  of  China. 


LETTER  XXI. 

FROM  PEKIN. 

Paradise  in-doors,  Tartarus  out— Pekln  Holes,  Mud,  Dust,  Dirt.— No  Noses  in  Pe- 
kin. — Sights  and  Smells. — Wealthy  Chinese. — Sumptuary  Laws  in  China. — Se- 
dan-chairs.— Marriages  and  Funerals. — Women  of  no  Account. — Polygamy. — 
Women's  Fashions  in  Pekin. — Dr.  Williams,  the  Secretary,  Bibliophilist,  and 
Encyclopaedist.  —  The  Chinese  retrograding.  —  Confucianism  losing  its  In- 
fluence.— Christianity. — Roman  Catholics,  when  starting  here,  teaching  the  Ma- 
terial as  well  as  the  Spiritual. — Conflict  of  Christ  and  Confucius. — The  Chinese 
Classics. 

PEKIN,  August  23,  1871. 

IN  the  Russian  legation  here,  inside,  there  is 
every  luxury  or  comfort  the  heart  could  desire. 
Some  ten  or  twelve  acres  of  inclosure,  walls,  gardens, 
fruits,  flowers,  birds,  books,  horses  in  abundance  to 
ride  on,  chairs  to  ride  in,  etc. ;  but  outside,  in  the 
streets  and  highways,  what  sloughs,  pits,  sinks,  holes, 
stinks,  mud,  dirt,  dust !  To  go  out  is  like  going  out 
of  paradise  into  Tartarus.  The  pope,  by-the-way, 
nicknamed  all  these  Easterners,  when  they  first 
visited  Home,  as  from  Tartarus;  hence,  the  word 
Tartar,  unknown  here  but  in  foreign  mouths.  Nev- 
ertheless, one  must  go  out.  There  are  no  roads  for 
carriages;  hence,  no  carriages  of  any  kind,  except 
that  villanous,  springless,  wooden-axled  cart,  mule- 
hauled.  The  Mongolian  pony,  a  furious,  fiery  beast, 
that  turns  down  his  ears  and  turns  up  his  heels,  when 


FROM   PEKIN.  183 

you  go  to  mount  him,  is  your  pleasant  companion. 
You  must  go  with  the  pony  through  the  streets  of 
Pekin,  or  not  go  at  all,  unless  you  "  foot  it,"  and 
the  distances  in  the  hot  sun  now  are  too  great  for 
that.  When  I  came  here,  the  other  day,  the  city 
was  all  mud,  mud — mud,  two  feet  deep,  or  more — 
and  hopeless  sloughs  in  that  mud,  if  you  were  not 
taught  the  Pekin  arts  of  mud  navigation.  Now  there 
are  many  dry  places,  for  an  August  sun  has  been 
pouring  down  some  days,  and  the  dust  is  from  one  to 
six  inches  deep  in  some  places,  while  in*  others  the 
mud  is  about  as  bad  as  ever,  and  the  rivers  of  un- 
drained  water  render  whole  streets  impossible  to 
cross.  For  example,  I  rode  a  mile  to-day  under  the 
great  walls  of  the  Imperial  Palace  on  a  raised  mud 
sidewalk,  dusty  now,  and  so  narrow,  a  Chinaman 
could  hardly  pass  me  on  horseback,  while  six  or 
eight  feet  below  was  a  mud  river,  a  monstrous  ditch 
twenty  feet  wide,  of  mud  and  water,  no  mule  or  pony 
eared  to  sound  or  to  explore.  This  mingled  dust  and 
mud  is  a  strange  sight  in  a  city ;  but  in  our  own  capi- 
tal of  "Washington,  during  the  civil  war,  the  streets 
often  were  not  unlike  those  of  Pekin  ;  and  even 
now,  where  the  street-builders  are  working,  in  the 
upheaved  Washington,  or,  on  the  New  York  new 
avenues,  say,  things  are  very  Pekin-ese. 

How  human  beings  live  by  the  hundred  thousands 
in  such  a  city  as  this,  is  only  to  be  accounted  for  by  an 
utter  insensibility  to  sights  and  smells ;  but  they  don't 
see,  and  they  don't  smell.  Eyes  and  noses  in  China 


184:  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

are,  indeed,  often  as  great  curses  as  everywhere  else, 
big  blessings.  I  should  like  to  dispense  with  a  nose 
till  I  get  back  to  America,  or  into  Europe,  if  I  could 
then  buy  it  back  again !  No  sewers,  no  closets,  no 
drains !  No  way  of  letting  out  of  a  big  city  the  filth 
in  it !  Streets  uncleaned  for  two  centuries,  save  by 
the  hogs  and  vultures  !  The  poor  are  unclad  and  un- 
washed, with  skins  the  water  seems  never  to  have 
penetrated,  and  eyes  that  are  sore— but  why  pain  you 
to  describe  ?  Imagine  the  worst  of  every  thing,  in 
that  way,  and  that  worst  is  all  here.  Nevertheless, 
people  do  live  here,  and  some  live  magnificently. 
There  are  some  wealthy  Chinese.  There  are  many 
wealthy  mandarins.  The  interiors  of  some  of  their 
hopeless-exterior-looking  dwellings  abound  in  a  cer- 
tain species  of  luxuries,  and  in  a  very  few  comforts. 
What  Pekin  is,  therefore,  one  cannot  see  in  the 
streets  ;  and,  as  a  foreigner  can  only  with  great  diffi- 
culty get  into  a  Chinese  house,  no  stranger  is  likely 
to  see  more  than  these  streets.  There  are  sumptuary 
laws  in  Pekin  that  forbid  luxurious  indulgence.  No 
mandarin  ever  can  ride  in  a  sedan-chair,  no  matter 
how  many  buttons  he  has  won — what  their  color  is,  or 
what  fans  he  carries,  but  by  special  permission  of  the 
emperor.  The  sedan-chair  is  the  emperor's  preroga- 
tive. Foreigners  attached  to  legations  use  it  as  rep- 
resentatives of  home  majesty,  and  the  "  insolence  "  is 
tolerated  from  necessity ;  but  no  Chinaman  ventures 
upon  any  thing  beyond  a  cart,  save  on  two  great 
days  of  life,  or  death — the  first,  a  marriage  proces- 


FROM  PEKIN.  185 

sion,  and  the  second,  a  funeral.  Luxuries  are  al- 
lowed then.  The  woman,  then,  the  only  day  of  her 
life,  rides  in  a  sort  of  sedan.  Hence,  now  I  under- 
stand the  commotion  made  on  the  night  of  my  enter- 
ing the  city  with  an  open  sedan  and  a  lady  in  it. 
These  sumptuary  laws  I  speak  of,  pervade,  I  am  told, 
all  Pekin  life,  and  are  here  especially  kept  up  to 
keep  the  people  as  far  as  possible  removed  from  the 
luxuries  of  the  emperor.  They  do  not  exist  else- 
where in  China,  only  in  this  court  city,  where  the 
emperor  is.  The  mandarin  has  his  especial  sable 
robe,  or  ermine  adornments,  in  winter.  As  for  the 
women,  they  seem  to  be  of  no  account  here,  save  as 
mothers  of  children.  The  Chinaman  takes  as  many 
wives  as  he  can  support — the  emperor  has  them  by 
the  hundred — but  the  first  wife  is  the  real  wife,  the 
only  mistress  of  the  establishment,  and  the  others  are 
only  her  handmaids  about  the  establishment,  and 
they  all  obey  her.  The  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob 
mode  of  life  is  the  life  in  China  yet.  They  have  not 
advanced,  in  this  respect,  a  step  beyond  the  patri- 
archs. "What  a  field  this  would  be  for  Mrs.  Cady 
Stanton  and  the  other  bright,  strong-minded  ladies 
who,  in  America,  are  reforming  the  world  —  for 
woman  is  not  of  the  least  account  here,  save  to  be 
pretty  and  well  painted  with  white  powder  and  ver- 
milion, in  hair  long,  skewered,  and  well  glued,  so  that 
a  gale  of  wind  cannot  disturb  it — the  whole  standing 
upon  two  little  props,  looking  like  birds'  claws  done 
up  in  sandals,  and  here  called  "  feet."  Alas,  women's 


186  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

fashions  are  equally  foolish  everywhere!  I  bet  in 
Japan,  once,  the  woman's  hair  was  her  own,  and  was 
beaten  in  the  bet.  I  would  not  bet  on  any  thing 
about  woman  in  China  now,  from  her  head  to  her 
foot-claws — from  her  long  nails  to  the  color  of  her 
face.  Copper.  I  should  have  called  her  color;  but  I 
see  so  many  powdered  and  vermilion  faces,  that  I  am 
not  certain,  now,  the  woman  race  is  not  white,  with 
red  cheeks,  or  cheeks  a  little  reddened.  Above  the 
brows  is  often  painted  red,  with  the  eyelids,  too. 

The  British  and  French  legations  have  quarters 
almost  as  luxurious  as  the  Russian — the  British,  more 
ground.  The  Russian  ground  was  a  concession  in 
olden  times,  the  fee  being  in  the  Russian  government ; 
the  British  hire  a  grand  Chinese  palace,  with  right  of 
lease-renewal,  at  about  fifteen  hundred  dollars  annual 
rent ;  the  French  say,  the  repairs  they  have  made 
and  make  upon  their  palace  pay  the  rent.  The 
American  legation  is  in  the  house  and  on  the  grounds 
of  Dr.  Williams,  the  secretary  of  legation  and  inter- 
preter here,  who  bought  and  built  all  for  himself. 
But  for  him,  the  American  minister  would  have  no 
place  fit  for  a  dog  to  live  in.  The  houses  and 
grounds  are  handsome  now,  and  quite  spacious. 
This  Dr.  S.  "Wells  "Williams,  by-the-way,  who  came 
in  from  his  summer  quarters,  "  the  hills,"  some  six- 
teen miles  off,  to  see  me,  spent  the  day  with  me,  and 
is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  I  ever  met  with. 
He  is  the  American  indispensability,  and  the  Ameri- 
can institution  in  China.  He  has  lived  here  some 


FROM  PEKIN.  187 

thirty  odd  years,  speaks  Chinese  fluently,  and  proba- 
bly knows  more  of  China  than  most  of  the  Chinese. 
He  is  a  regular  Bibliophilist,  a  Thesaurus,  an  Ency- 
clopaedia, and  seems  to  know  every  thing.  Just  now 
he  is  making  a  Chinese-English  dictionary,  on  which 
he  has  been  at  work  some  years,  and  which  he  hopes 
to  finish  in  a  year.  ~No  topic  turned  up  in  our  long 
conversation,  whether  of  theology,  cosmography, 
philology,  or  cosmogony,  that  he  did  not  seem  to 
know  all  about,  and  without  the  least  ostentation  of 
knowledge.  And  then  he  was  as  great  on  furs,  sables, 
and  fur-bearing  animals,  and  where  they  come  from, 
and  on  precious  stones,  as  on  the  ologies.  He  went 
with  Commodore  Perry,  as  translator,  to  open  Japan, 
and  he  speaks  Japanese.  What  a  pity  such  "  books  " 
have  to  die,  and  one  cannot  always  have  such  living 
books  with  them,  instead  of  being  compelled  to  turn 
over  leaves,  and  weary  one's  eyes  with  letters!  Dr. 
Williams  was  a  printer  by  trade,  came  to  Macao  from 
^Jtica,  ]N"ew  York,  as  a  printer,  and  for  some  years 
published  and  edited  the  Chinese  Repository  in  Can- 
ton. Dr.  Hepburne,  of  Yokohama,  Japan,  is  another 
like  man — an  American  indispensability  there — who 
links  and  connects  us  with  all  we  know  of  Japan. 
He,  too,  is  making  a  dictionary — a  Japanese-English 
dictionary.  Of  course,  men  thus  long  living  with  the 
native  races  here,  become  sympathetic  with  them,  ex- 
cuse them,  palliate  their  blunders,  errors,  faults,  even 
their  crimes.  Dr.  Williams  relies  upon  the  Bible, 
and  only  upon  the  Bible,  to  reform  China,  The 


188  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

race  lias  made  all  the  progress  possible,  he  adds, 
without  Christianity,  and  is  now  retrograding  be- 
cause some  of  the  principles  of  the  Bible,  which  Con- 
fucius preached  as  well  as  Christ,  are  fading  away, 
or  being  disobeyed.  He  thinks  Christianity  is  mak- 
ing as  rapid  a  progress  here  as  could  be  expected, 
when  first  brought  into  conflict  with  the  Buddhism 
and  Confucianism  of  a  thousand  ages,  and  that  it  is 
now  laying  the  foundation,  by-and-by  rapidly  to  go 
ahead.  I  do  not  see  it,  though  he  does.  It  seems  to 
me,  and  such  is  the  opinion  of  most  foreigners  here, 
outside  of  the  missionary  establishments,  that  if  the 
missionaries  would  teach  more  science,  the  arts,  etc., 
the  quicker  they  would  reach  the  Chinese  soul,  and 
convert  it  to  Christianity.  The  Bible,  and  only  the 
Bible,  however,  is  what  the  missionary  clings  to, 
though  some  of  these  missionaries  are,  in  some  re- 
spects, learned  men.  The  Roman  Catholics,  when 
first  here,  started  as  teachers  of  things  material  as 
well  as  spiritual,  and  they  accommodated  the  spir- 
itual to  the  material.  Matthew  Eicci,  an  Italian 
Jesuit,  who  came  to  China  about  the  year  1600,  put 
off  the  priesthood  garb,  and  put  on  that  of  the  Con- 
fucian literati.  He  studied  their  sacred  classic  books, 
and  became  master  of  Confucius  and  Mencius. 
Schaal,  a  German  Jesuit,  made  himself  an  astrono- 
mer in  Pekin.  Yerbiest,  another  GFerman  Jesuit, 
made  logarithms,  and  cast  guns  for  the  Chinese. 
But,  in  time,  the  Catholics  fought  with  the  Chinese 
worship  of  ancestors,  the  system  of  polygamy,  etc., 


FROM  PEKIN.  189 

and  then  the  conflict  of  Christ  and  Confucius  be- 
came so  sharp  that  both  the  Jesuits  and  Dominicans 
were  expelled,  even  after  converting  no  small  portion 
of  China  to  Christianity. 

I  have  been  reading,  now,  for  some  weeks,  trans- 
lations of  Confucius  and  Mencius,  and  of  all  other 
translated  classics  I  could  get  hold  of — these  classics, 
with  the  commentaries  upon  them,  are  legion,  filling 
great  libraries  ;  and  I  am  in  a  great  state  of  mental 
confusion  over  them.  Only  such  scholars  as  Dr. 
"Williams  and  the  British  minister,  Mr.  "Wade,  with 
whom  I  have  made  many  talks,  seem  to  comprehend 
the  mysteries  in  them — but  I  am  convinced  they 
would  be  very  profitable  studies  to  us  Americans,  so 
far  as  they  teach  home-government,  family-govern- 
ment, self-government,  obedience  to  parents,  sacrifice 
of  self  to  parents,  etc.  Morals  are  the  foundation  of 
politics  with  the  great  Chinese  philosopher.  "  How 
can  a  mean  man  serve  his  prince  ?  (asks  Confucius). 
"When  out  of  office,  his  sole  object  is  to  attain  it,  and 
when  he  has  attained  it,  his  only  anxiety  is  to  keep  it. 
In  his  unprincipled  dread  of  losing  his  place,  he  will 
readily  go  all  lengths."  How  much  suggestion  in 
that  for  the  American  mind,  just  now? 

But  how  I  am  wandering,  and  scribbling,  and 
philosophizing,  and  on  what  dry  topics !  Enough  for 
to-day. 


LETTER  XXII. 

THE  TEMPLES  IN  PEKIN. 

The  Temples  in  China. — Confucius  and  the  Lama. — The  Lessons  of  Confucius. — His 
Influence  in  the  Government  of  the  Chinese. — The  Sages  of  China. — Tablets  to 
the  Disciples  of  Confucius. — The  Competitive  Students. — The  Despotism  and 
Democracy  of  China. — The  Diagrams. — The  Tang  and  the  Tin. — Intelligence  of 
the  Chinese.— The  Lama  Buddhist  Temple.— Mongolian  Priests.— Contrast  of 
the  Lama  and  Confucius  Temples. — A  Chinese  Mandarin's  House. — Tang  was 
his  Name. — Sensation  in  the  Streets. — The  Interior  of  the  Mandarin's  House. — 
The  Wife  and  Handmaids. — Description  of  the  Wife's  Dress. — Refreshments. — 
Walks  on  the  Koof  of  the  House. 

PEKIN,  August  24,  1871. 

TO-DAY  I  have  made  two  grand  visits — one,  to  the 
living  temple  of  the  great  Confucius ;  another,  to  the 
grand  temples  of  the  Buddhist  Lamas,  who  here  rep- 
resent the  Grand  Lama  of  Thibet  and  the  Lamas  of 
Mongolia.  I  approach  the  temple  of  Confucius  as  I 
once  approached  Jerusalem,  or  the  Areopagus,  or 
the  Pantheon,  or  Westminster  Abbey,  or  the  Sor- 
bonne.  It  is  the  temple  of  knowledge  in  China,  the 
light,  the  only  light,  where  no  Bible  is  read.  Con- 
fucius was  born  about  550  B.  c.,  and  from  the  day 
of  his  death,  seventy-three  years  after,  his  books  have 
ruled  the  kings,  the  mandarins,  the  people  of  China 
— now  about  one-third  of  the  human  race.  Chris- 
tianity and  Confucianism  are  yet  dividing  the  empire 
of  the  world.  Over  two  thousand  years,  Confucian- 
ism has  kept  together,  under  stable  government,  now 
the  oldest  nation  on  earth,  and  one  which  has  sur- 
vived all  the  empires  and  wrecks  of  the  European 


THE  TEMPLES  IN   PEKIN.  191 

world.  Hence,  one  must  go  up  to  the  temple  of 
Confucius,  as  one  goes  up  to  the  Areopagus,  if  not 
to  Mars  Hill  and  Jerusalem.  Confucius  was  wiser 
and  greater  than  Aristotle,  or  Plato,  or  Cicero,  or 
Seneca.  His  political  and  social  lessons,  and  obedi- 
ence to  them,  have  saved  China  from  the  wreck  and 
ruin  of  countless  other  nations  in  Asia,  Europe,  and 
Africa. 

There  is  nothing  very  remarkable  in  this  temple 
of  Confucius  to  look  at.  The  association  is  the  only 
inspiration.  The  hall  is  lofty,  the  roof  supported  by 
large  teak  pillars  from  southwestern  China.  The 
front  is  a  broad  and  handsome  marble  terrace,  with 
balustrades,  ascended  on  three  sides  by  seventeen 
steps.  The  inscription  on  the  tablet,  in  Chinese  and 
Manchu,  is : 

"  THE  TABLET  OF  THE  SOUL  OF  THE  MOST  HOLY  ANCES- 
TRAL TEACHER,  CONFUCIUS." 

Tablets  of  other  four  distinguished  sages — Men- 
cius,  Tseng-tsi,  Ten-hway  and  Tze-sze — are  placed, 
two  on  each  side ;  and  six  more,  celebrated  men  of 
the  school,  occupy  a  lower  position  on  the  side.  On 
the  walls  are  handsome  tablets  in  praise  of  Confucius. 
Each  new  emperor  presents  one  in  token  of  venera- 
tion for  the  sage.  Some  of  these  are : 

"  OF  ALL  MEN  BORN,  THE  UNRIVALLED." 

"EQUAL  WITH  HEAVEN  AND  EARTH." 
"EXAMPLE  AND  TEACHER  OF  ALL  AGES." 


192  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

On  each  side  of  the  court  is  a  range  of  buildings 
where  there  are  tablets  to  more  than  a  Hundred  cele- 
brated scholars.  On  the  east  side  are  seventy-eight 
virtuous  men,  and  on  the  west  fifty-four  learned  men. 
Then,  there  are  rows  of  tablets,  or  monuments,  with 
the  names  of  the  successful  competitive  scholars, 
who,  at  the  triennial  examinations  in  Pekin,  win 
their  honors  on  topics  given  to  them,  when  shut  up 
for  three  days,  with  only  pencil  and  ink  for  compan- 
ions, all  books  and  all  other  companions  excluded. 
These  tablets  look  as  if  they  ran  back  for  three  or 
four  hundred  years ;  but  the  names  of  those  over  a 
century  old  cannot  be  deciphered,  as  time  has  ob- 
literated the  engravings  made  of  them  in  the  marble. 
What  better  shows  the  vanity  of  human  pursuit,  of 
ambition,  of  the  love  of  glory  ?  It  reminded  me  of 
the  Consular  tablets  on  the  Capitoline  Hill  of  Rome 
— but  what  vanity  is  it  all  1 

Nevertheless,  these  competitive  examinations  and 
contests  have  the  widest  and  greatest  influence  over 
the  Chinese  Empire.  They  open  the  doors  of  pro- 
motion to  the  very  poor  as  well  as  to  the  rich,  and 
they  make  every  humble  person  feel — "  I  can  be  a 
mandarin ; "  "I  can  have  the  government  of  a  prov- 
ince ; "  "I  can  see,  kneel  by,  and  advise  the  em- 
peror ! "  They  convert  the  absolute,  hereditary, 
and  otherwise  uncontrollable,  supposed-to-be  heaven- 
given  despotism  into  an  educated  democracy.  Learn- 
ing must  govern — not  blockheads  and  ignorance.  A 
man  must  know  something,  in  order  to  rule.  The 


THE   TEMPLES  IN  PEKIN.  193 

government,  in  short,  is  put  into  the  hands  of  the 
intelligent  classes — such  intelligence  as  it  is!  But 
what  an  extraordinary  species  of  intelligence !  What 
strange  studies !  What  curious  themes  !  In  our 

O 

barbarous  ages,  our  European  metaphysical  fathers 
disputed  long  and  loudly,  "  whether  angels  could  see 
in  the  dark,"  or,  "  whether  you  could  pass  from  one 
point  of  space  to  another  without  going  through  the 
intermediate  points ; "  but  here,  the  studies  are  of 
the  eight  diagrams  of  Fo-hy,  or  of  the  Yang  and  Yin, 
the  active  and  passive  principle  of  the  mundane  egg, 
etc.,  etc.  The  knowledge  is  great ;  the  scholarism  is 
wonderful — but,  cui  ~bono?  It  runs  no  railroads, 
raises  no  telegraph  poles,  creates  no  great  power, 
military  or  naval,  cleans  no  streets,  makes  no  sewers, 
diffuses  no  practical  knowledge!  Once  more,  the 
whole  system,  proves  that  reading  and  writing  are 
not  knowledge,  and  books  are  not  knowledge.  Even 
the  unreading  and  unwriting  may,  by  mere  observa- 
tion and  practice,  know  far  more  than  those  who 
thus  read  or  write. 

But  the  competition,  the  study,  the  ambition,  do 
reflect  a  wonderful  amount  of  intellect,  and  a  certain 
species  of  intelligence,  among  all  the  common  people 
of  China.  Almost  all  the  people  look  bright,  active, 
and  earnest.  Their  self-discipline  is  astonishing. 
They  work  with  patience  and  assiduity,  and  seem- 
ingly discharge  all  their  duties  with  content.  None 
learn  faster,  if  any  so  fast,  by  mere  imitation.  Their 
capacity  in  that  respect  is  amazing.  Their  existing 


194  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

manufactories  show  what  they  could  do,  if  they  had 
the  machinery  and  the  capital.  As  writers,  our  dip- 
lomats find  their  mandarins  hard  to  cope  with.  As 
servants,  they  are  unequalled  the  world  over.  The 
Chinese  waiter  is  about  the  only  one  in  the  world 
who  can  guess,  by  instinct,  as  it  were,  what  you 
want,  so  that,  though  you  have  not  a  word  for  inter- 
course, you  can  get  along  pretty  well  by  the  fingers 
and  eyes  alone. 

But,  near  as  I  am  to  the  temple  of  Confucius, 
where  there  is  not  a  god,  nor  an  idol,  nor  an  altar,  I 
must  not  forget  the  large  Lama  Buddhist  temple — 
with  its  thirteen  hundred  or  fifteen  hundred  Lama 
Mongolian  priests.  Some  three  hundred  of  them 
there  receive  instruction  in  metaphysics,  or  the  doc- 
trine of  "  the  empty  nature  " — that  is,  the  non-ex- 
istence of  matter,  being,  and  things,  such  topics  as 
the  crazy  French  revolutionists  discussed^  earnestly, 
in  the  days  of  Yoltaire.  Others  study  other  things 
— one  hundred  and  fifty  of  them  medicine — but  Mon- 
gols, or  Thibetans,  unlike  the  Chinese,  do  not  study 
overmuch.  The  Mongolian  Lama  priests  we  saw,  in 
their  yellow  robes,  as  thick  as  bees  in  a  hive,  did  not 
seem  bright  enough  to  study  any  thing.  Indeed, 
they  are  not  expected  to  do  much,  if  any  thing,  but 
to  keep  their  temples  in  order,  and  this  they  do  bad- 
ly. The  idols  are  dirty ;  the  walls  are  ragged ;  the 
floors  are  dusty.  The  Chinese  Government  supports 
all  these  priests,  to  keep  the  Mongolians,  whose  re- 
ligion they  represent,  in  order.  They  buy  their  priests 


THE   TEMPLES  IN  PEKIN.  195 

to  keep  quiet,  and  so  keep  their  people  quiet.  I 
should  weary  you  by  describing  here  all  the  halls, 
altars,  cypress  trees,  hundreds  of  years  old,  and  a 
seventy-five  feet  high  wooden  Buddha,  with  steps  in- 
side of  him.  Understand,  then,  it  was  a  "  mighty 
big "  concern,  take  it  altogether,  greater  in  extent 
than  the  Capitol  in  Washington  (but  only  one  story 
or  a  story  and  a  half  high) ;  bigger  than  the  !N  ew 
York  Central  Park  fountains,  bridges,  and  lake. 
Beautiful  carpets,  made  far  away  off  in  the  interior, 
somewhere,  were  on  the  floor.  There  were  pictures 
all  the  way  from  Thibet,  with  all  sorts  of  odd  repre- 
sentations everywhere,  wearying  one's  eyes  to  look 
at  them,  and  confusing  the  senses  to  comprehend. 

The  contrast  of  these  neighboring  temples — the 
one  to  the  yet  living  principles  of  Confucius,  and  the 
other  to  the  idol  Buddha — was  what  most  impressed 
me.  In  the  Confucian  temple  were  active,  lively, 
hard-studying,  ambitious  Chinese ;  in  this  Mongol 
Lamasery  of  boyish  priests,  were  half-dead  men, 
walking  on  legs,  but  without  any  inspiration  in 
them,  living  on  bread,  and  fruits,  and  meats,  as  ani- 
mals live,  but  living  only  to  consume  the  fruits  of 
the  earth  (nati  consumere  fruges). 

But  I  am  scribbling  with  dulness  on  priests  and 
scholars.  Paulo  majora.  canemus.  Let  us  sing  on 
women,  and  houses,  and  homes,  and  visits,  and  style 
and  fashions.  Through  the  negotiations  of  some  of  the 
Chinese  student  interpreters  in  the  British  Legation, 
we  were  introduced  to-day,  with  two  ladies,  into  the 


196  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

very  heart  of  a  Chinese  mandarin's  house — Yang 
was  his  name — and  we  saw  there  what  men  seldom 
or  never  can  see  in  Pekin.  To  give  eclat  to  our  out- 
fit, we  started  from  the  Russian  Legation  with  two 
sedan-chairs,  a  lady  in  each,  and  sixteen  coolies  in 
stylish  livery  to  carry  them,  with  three  European 
cavaliers,  two  of  them  speaking  Chinese  and  English, 
to  escort  them,  and  two  outriders  on  horseback,  in 
grandee  livery,  to  lead  off  and  follow  after  the  escort. 
Pekin,  of  course,  opened  its  eyes,  as  such  a  cavalcade 
went  through  its  streets.  Mule-men,  market-men, 
cart-men,  shopkeeper-men,  all  stopped  to  comment 
on  the  show.  We  were  crowded  through  two  city 
gates,  from  the  Tartar  into  the  Chinese  city,  where 
the  dust  was  terrible,  the  pavement  worse,  and  the 
crowd,  if  possible,  worse  still.  We  entered  a  very 
narrow  and  most  unimposing  street,  that  led  to  our 
mandarin's  rather  palatial  establishment.  The  man- 
darin, to  be  sure,  was  not  a  student  mandarin,  who 
had  studied  his  way  up  on  "  the  essence  "  of  things, 
and  won  his  buttons  by  his  books — for  he  was  a  rich 
banker,  who  had  won  his  way  up  by  dollars,  or  Chi- 
nese taels  (sycee),  and  who  bought  his  rank  and  title 
therewith.  The  mandarin  met  us  at  the  entrance, 
escorted  us  through  a  narrow  passage  into  a  court- 
yard, where  were  dogs,  and/nonkeys,  and  flowers  in 
pots.  Passing  over  the  court-yard,  we  met,  in  a  re- 
ception room,  the  wife,  with  her  handmaids.  There 
were  Chinese  chairs  and  tables  in  this  room,  and  we 
were  invited  to  sit  down.  The  wife  and  her  hand- 


THE   TEMPLES  IN   TEKIN.  197 

maids,  of  whom  there  were  three  or  four,  were  elabo- 
rately painted,  in  powder  and  vermilion.  The  under 
lip,  about  an  inch,  wide  in  the  middle,  was  painted  a 
bright  crimson.  The  hair  of  the  wife  !Nb.  1  was 
drawn  up  in  a  peculiar  knot,  projecting  behind 
some  six  or  eight  inches,  with  gilt  and  jade  hair- 
pins fastening  a  white  lily  on  the  right  side.  Her 
ear-rings  were  of  jade,  and  pearl,  and  gold.  Rings 
of  the  same  kind  were  on  her  fingers.  The  feet 
did  not  seem  to  be  over  three  inches  long — so  short, 
that  she  could  scarcely  stand  or  step,  and  in  the  end 
we  found  she  could  not  go  up-stairs.  The  under 
dress  was  of  blue  satin,  close  to  her  lower  limbs, 
and  elaborately  embroidered.  The  upper  dress 
was  a  lighter  blue  silk  blouse.  On  her  arms  were 
heavy  gold  and  precious  stone  bracelets.  Wife 
No.  2  was  a  Manchu  woman,  with  a  different  head- 
dress, and  an  inferior  style  generally.  Wife  JSTo.  1 
did  all  the  honors.  The  others  stood,  while  she  sat. 
All  were  painted,  even  a  daughter  of  fourteen  or  fif- 
teen years  of  age.  We  were  ushered,  then,  into  the 
mandarin's  study  and  bedroom,  where  tea  was  served 
tis.  Many  European  scientific  things  were  around. 
The  master  of  the  house  was  fond  of  electricity,  and 
kept  a  battery  to  light  his  pipe.  He  was  a  photog- 
rapher, too,  and  took  portraits  of  wife  JSTo.  1,  in  her 
grandest  state  dress.  This  so  attracted  our  curiosity 
that  we  asked  to  see  it,  and  out  it  came — costly, 
magnificent,  emblazoned  with  gold,  of  crimson  satin, 
elaborately  embroidered,  and  with  an  over-mantle 


198  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

more  sliowy  still.  The  head-dress  was  a  sort  of 
crown,  six  or  eight  inches  high,  on  a  gold  wire  foun- 
dation, with  turquoise,  rubies,  and  the  like  orna- 
ments interwoven.  Numerous  pearl  pendants  hung 
below  the  chin.  The  pearls  were  magnificent,  and 
cost — how  much,  who  can  tell  ? 

We  were  then  escorted  into  another  room,  where 
refreshments  were  given  us,  served  in  European 
style,  with  Chinese  cakes  and  liquors.  The  children 
were  then  exhibited  to  us — the  children  of  different 
mothers,  but  they  all  seemed  to  live  harmoniously 
together.  The  "No.  2  and  No.  3  wives  did  not  sit 
down,  as  did  wife  No.  1,  but  seemed  content  and 
happy  to  look  on.  There  were  a  melodeon,  and  many 
books.  Other  rooms  were  then  shown  us,  and  as  we 
became  weary  of  them,  we  were  taken  into  other 
court-yards,  grottoes,  over  little  bridges,  spanning 
little  lakes,  with  flowers  everywhere  about  us,  and 
grapevines,  and  amid  little  trees.  Then,  we  were 
taken  on  to  the  roof  of  the  house,  where  were  pretty 
walks  and  promenades,  with  cool,  refreshing  breezes, 
contrasting  favorably  with  the  heat  of  the  rooms  be- 
low. All  these  places  were  within  one  wall,  and 
this  wall  overtopped  every  point  of  view  from  the 
street  and  the  neighborhood.  I  was  much  gratified 
with  this  inner  view  of  a  Chinese  establishment,  the 
like  of  which  is  seldom  or  never  given  to  man,  when 
alone,  to  look  upon.  Wealth  thus  exists,  we  see, 
even  amid  the  dirt  and  dust  of  the  streets  of  Pekin, 
and  Fashion  is  as  omnipotent  and  droll  here  as  in 
Paris  or  New  York. 


LETTER  XXIII. 

THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  CHINA. 

The  Great  "Wall  of  China. — The  Overland  Route  to  St  Petersburg. — Turned  back  by  a 
Mohammedan  Emeute. — Now  too  late  or  too  early  in  the  Season. — Can  tele- 
graph from  here  to  New  Tork  In  twelve  or  sixteen  Days. — The  Government  of 
China. — Confucius  a  sort  of  Ben  Franklin  or  Thomas  Jefferson. — No  Hereditary 
Aristocracy. — Public  Sentiment  governs  here  as  in  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States. — Railroads  and  Telegraphs  resisted  by  Superstitions,  to  be 
overcome. — China  making  Great  Preparations  for  War. — Casting  Cannon,  etc. — 
China  retrograding. — Corruption  the  Cause. — Mandarin  Titles  bought  and 
sold. — The  Literati  Mandarins  now  dishonest. — The  Boy  Emperor,  fifteen 
Tears  of  Age. — His  Future  not  promising. — The  Dowager  hunting  a  Wife  for 
Mm.— The  Pekin  Gazette. 

PEKIN,  August  25,  1871. 

ONE  of  the  dreams  of  my  life  lias  been  to  go  to, 
and  to  stand  upon,  the  great  wall  of  China.  There 
were  certain  seven  wonders  in  the  world  to  be  seen 
in  the  geographies  of  my  boyhood,  and  the  great  wall 
was  one  of  them.  I  have  "  done  "  the  Pyramids,  the 
Colossus  of  Rhodes,  and  the  other  wonders,  I  believe ; 
but  the  great  wall  is  yet  to  be  "  done "  before  I 
am  done  travelling,  or  there  would  be  no  content. 
Hence,  I  am  preparing  a  start  for  the  wall.  "What 
grieves  me  most,  though,  is,  that  there,  I  shall  be 
compelled  to  retrace  my  steps,  at  least  for  a  thou- 
sand miles,  back  to  Shanghai,  before  I  can  again  get 
on  a  new  track.  I  have  long  been  resolving  upon 
the  Russian  overland  route,  homeward,  through  the 
Desert  of  Gobi,  on  camels,  to  Kiakhta,  the  border 


200  &  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

town  of  trade  between  the  caravans  of  China  and 
Russia  —  thence  to  Irkutsk,  the  Baikal,  the  Ural 
Mountains,  the  Yolga,  and  on,  home,  via  Novgorod, 
Moscow,  and  St.  Petersburg ;  but  there  is  fighting 
going  on  somewhere,  thereabout  (in  China),  or  a  terri- 
ble fright,  because  of  the  Mohammedans  and  their 
hordes  inroading  just  now,  so  that  I  am  partially 
talked  out  of  it,  though  more  scared  out  of  it  by  the 
approaching  cold  weather.  The  distance  across  the 
two  continents,  Asia  and  Europe,  is  some  five  thou- 
sand miles,  or  more — one  thousand  miles  of  it  nearly 
in  China,  where  every  thing  is  in  disorder ;  but  in 
Russia  there  is  a  strong  government,  with  horse-posts 
everywhere,  so  that  I  think  I  could  manage  to  go  in 
safety,  if  once  there.  There  is  a  railroad,  too,  one 
thousand  miles  long,  from  St.  Petersburg  via  Mos- 
cow, through  Novgorod,  on  to  Kasan,  and  probably 
further  now,  as  the  Russians  are  building  a  Pacific 
railroad  like  ours,  which  will  probably  be  driven 
through  Siberia  and  Manchuria  in  about  ten  years. 
The  work  is  not  so  difficult  as  ours.  Already  they 
have  a  telegraph  line  across  the  continent,  the  whole 
length. 

But,  alas,  I  must  give  up  the  dream  of  going  over 
all  this,  and  of  thus  going  through  the  heart  of  Si- 
beria, and  so,  well  comprehending  Russia.  It  is  both 
too  late  and  too  early  in  the  season  to  start  on  such  a 
journey.  The  cool  winds  already  coming  from  the  hills 
overlooking  Pekin,  and  the  cooler  winds  soon  to  come 
from  the  mountains  of  Mongolia,  admonish  me  that 


THE   GOVERNMENT   OF   CHINA.  201 

if  I  were  to  start  now,  I  should  be  fighting  floating 
ice  in  Siberia  on  every  river  I  should  be  crossing 
there,  not  strong  enough  to  hold  horses,  and  yet  ob- 
structive enough  to  forbid  the  passage  of  rivers  in 
boats.  A  month  later  the  journey  could  be  made  on 
solid  ice,  and  in  good  sleighing,  the  most  of  the  way, 
with  the  thermometer  some  thirty  or  forty  degrees 
below  zero,  to  be  sure ;  but  what  is  that  to  a  man 
"raised"  on  the  Androscoggin,  or  Kennebec,  in 
Maine,  or  that  fears  the  Shanghai  thermometer  at 
ninety  far  more  than  forty  degrees  below  zero  in  Si- 
beria ?  The  start  for  this  Siberian  journey  should  be 
made  from  Pekin  in  May,  I  see — the  summer  route, 
with  clear  rivers ;  or  in  October — the  winter  route, 
with  frozen  rivers  to  cross.  It  is  hard,  rough,  long, 
but  nothing  killing  in  it,  on  a  fair  start,  under  good 
Russian  protection.  Two  or  three  Americans  have 
been  over  it — some  Englishmen — and  the  Russian 
couriers  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Pekin  go  every 
month,  or  oftener,  if  necessary.  St.  Petersburg  can 
be  reached  from  here  in  twelve  or  sixteen  days,  by 
telegraph,  from  Kiakhta,  the  first  Russian  town.  I 
could  telegraph  home,  I  think,  from  here  in  ten  days 
now,  and  from  Shanghai  directly. 

Before  I  leave  Pekin  I  must  try  to  convey  to  you 
my  impressions,  or  rather  guesses,  of  what  this  Gov- 
ernment is ;  for,  after  all,  such  travellers  as  I  am,  run 
on  haphazard — only  guessing.  No  American  out 
of  China,  however,  has  had  higher  or  better  sources 

of  conversational  information  than  I  have  had,  and 
10 


202  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

am  having.  The  British  and  French,  as  well  as  the 
Russian  legations,  have  been  as  kind  as  possible  to 
me  with  their  attaches  and  interpreters.  Our  Ameri- 
can Dr.  Williams,  too,  I  think,  is  better  informed 
than  any  other  man  in  China,  though  he  looks  at  all 
things  with  a  Christian  missionary  eye,  and  through 
Puritan  spectacles,  a  little  spotted  with  Chinese 
pebbles.  The  Government,  as  I  have  hinted,  seems 
to  be  a  democratic  despotism,  and  hence,  perhaps, 
the  secret  of  its  old  age  and  long  preservation. 
Confucius  was  a  sort  of  Thomas  Jefferson  or  Ben 
Franklin.  He  laid  down  great  practical  democratic 
principles,  and  they  have  ruled  emperors  and  manda- 
rins hundreds  and  hundreds  of  years.  Confucius 
created  a  public  opinion  and  a  system  of  precedents 
that  no  despotism  could  ever  safely  ignore.  Then, 
the  common  people,  through  their  instructed  manda- 
rins, guide,  and  overawe,  if  they  do  not  always  sway, 
the  emperor.  He  is  afraid  of  the  people,  and  the 
mandarins  are  afraid  of  the  people,  too.  There  is  as 
much  a  public  opinion  here  to  be  respected,  as  in 
Great  Britain  or  the  United  States.  No  hereditary 
aristocracy  of  any  kind  exists.  ISTo  mandarin  can 
transfer  even  his  buttons,  to  say  nothing  of  his  post, 
to  his  children.  When  these  mandarins  are  made  gov- 
ernors of  the  provinces  of  China,  their  power  is  quite 
absolute  ;  but  the  emperor  is  omnipotent,  of  course, 
over  them.  The  provinces  are  like  our  States,  with 
certain  provincial  rights  that  mandarins  must  respect 
when  sent  there.  Hence,  the  Government  is  nowhere 


THE   GOVERNMENT   OF  CHINA.  203 

absolutely  absolute — that  is,  with  safety  to  itself. 
Intelligent  mandarins  would  like  to  build  railroads 
and  telegraphs,  it  is  thought,  but  they  dare  not,  it  is 
believed,  as  yet.  No  mandarin  feels  potent  enough 
to  advise  the  emperor  to  run  a  railroad  over  the 
graves  and  through  the  graveyards  of  Chinese  re- 
vered and  worshipped  ancestors.  The  trouble  in 
erecting  telegraph  poles  is,  that  a  superstitious  China- 
man believes  (and  all  are  more  or  less  superstitious) 
that  these  poles  will  interfere  with  the  Fung-Shuey  ^ 
"  wind  and  water,"  a  species  of  geomancy,  or  a  be- 
lief in  the  good  or  ill  luck  attached  to  particular  local 
situations,  that  the  poles  may  have  struck.  Geo- 
mancy is  an  occult  science  here,  and  professors  study 
it,  and  tell  you  the  plan  for  a  house,  or  a  grave, 
where  the  Fung-Shuey  will  bless  it.  To  such  an  ex- 
tent is  this  superstition  existing  in  Pekin,  that  when 
the  Catholics  built  their  cathedral  higher  than  the 
imperial  wall,  the  wall  was  raised  higher  than  the 
cathedral,  to  ward  off  the  Catholic  Fung-Shuey.  To 
ride  over  such  superstitions,  rough-shod,  is  what  even 
an  intelligent  mandarin  does  not  like  to  do.  Hence, 
circumstances  and  events  must  control  the  erection 
of  telegraphs,  so  indispensable  for  the  unity  of  a  great 
empire  like  this,  and  not  force.  An  event  has  just 
now  occurred  which  will  hasten  the  erection  of  tel- 
egraphs. The  grand  Pekin  Council  of  Scholars 
awarded  two  competitive  prizes  to  two  Cantonese 
scholars,  the  highest  honors  of  the  empire.  The 
news  was  sent  from  Shanghai  by  sea  telegraph  to 


204:  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

Hong-Kong,  and  reached  Canton,  days  before  the 
news  could  go  overland.  The  Cantonese  were  as- 
tounded, and  discredited  the  intelligence  until  the 
long-looked-for  Pekin  official  Gazette  came  overland 
and  confirmed  it.  Then  there  was  wonder  and  mar- 
vel over  that  intelligence,  and  all  China,  from  north 
to  south,  is  asking  "  if  it  will  do  to  give  foreigners  the 
means  of  more  rapid  intercourse  with  the  exterior  of 
our  empire  than  we  ourselves  have."  Interest,  and 
trade,  and  commerce,  I  think,  will  soon  dispose  of 
that  Fung-Shuey,  and  give  China  the  telegraph. 
"  The  graves  of  our  ancestors,"  scattered  over  every 
little  field  in  China,  will  be  more  difficult  and  dan- 
gerous to  be  dealt  with  than  this  Fung-Shuey  /  but 
"  the  graves  of  our  ancestors  "  will  have  to  go  at 
last.  All  these  opinions,  nay,  superstitions,  in  a 
freeish  sort  of  country  like  this,  have,  however,  to 
be  respected,  even  by  emperors  and  mandarins. 
"We  have  opened  their  great  river,  one  of  the  greatest 
rivers  in  the  world ;  and,  by  steam,  we  Americans  do 
nearly  all  the  coasting  trade  there  with  Shanghai. 
Mandarins  now  prefer  our  boats  to  their  junks  to 
travel  in.  Europe  and  America  have  taught  China- 
men how  to  cast  cannon  and  to  make  rifles.  Their 
factories,  under  our  -  auspices,  are  almost  equal  to 
ours.  Their  rifle  is  as  good  as  our  Springfield  rifle. 
Their  ships  of  war  are  now  putting  on  formidable 
fronts.  If  England  again  comes  into  conflict  with 
China,  it  will  not  be  so  easy  a  conquest  as  in  her  two 
last  Chinese  wars. 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  CHINA.  205 

"Why,  then,  you  ask,  perhaps,  is  such  a  people 
retrograding  ? — for  here,  in  Pekin,  amid  the  ruin  of 
roads,  and  bridges,  and  palaces,  and  the  wreck  of  al- 
most every  thing,  this  retrogradation  is  too  visible. 
China  is  not  what  it  was  three  hundred  years  ago,  with 
as  much  civilization,  perhaps,  but  far  less  material 
progress.  The  answer  to  the  question  propounded 
here  is  a  most  important  one  to  us  Americans — for 
corruption  is  the  sole  cause  of  Chinese  retrogradation, 
and  is,  if  not  corrected,  certain  to  lead  to  the  down- 
fall of  the  empire,  and  its  subjugation  to  Europeans 
or  Americans.  I  have  pointed  out,  in  another  let- 
ter, how  rich  men  buy  mandarin  honors.  That  does 
not  give  a  mere  rich  man  office,  but  it  does  give  him 
rank,  station,  and  social  position,  and  the  common 
people  are  angry  that  even  thus  their  scholar  compet- 
itive system  should  be  interfered  with.  As  yet,  it  is 
believed,  though  often  suspected  to  the  contrary,  that 
the  examination  of  the  scholars  for  the  mandarin 
places  is  honest ;  and  hence,  corruption  may  not  have 
penetrated  these  schools.  But  now,  even  these  scholar 
mandarins  have  ceased  to  be  honest.  They  go  to 
their  provinces,  and  they  "  squeeze "  the  rich  and 
the  poor,  and  extort  all  they  dare.  They  buy  silence 
in  the  councils  of  Pekin  with  the  money  they  extort 
from  the  people,  and  thus  corruption  in  the  provinces 
works  corruption  in  the  capital,  till  all,  more  or  less, 
have  become  corrupt,  and  there  is  no  confidence  or 
honesty  anywhere.  Confucius  terribly  rebukes  all 
this  in  his  legacies ;  but  Confucius  is  losing  his  hold 


206  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

on  the  great  mandarins  of  the  empire.  The  empire, 
just  now,  is  in  the  hands  of  a  regency,  with  the  em- 
press-dowager and  Prince  Kung  at  the  head — with 
a  boy  of  only  fifteen  training  to  be  emperor.  Upon 
that  boy,  whether  he  watches  or  not  the  corruption 
of  the  empire — whether  he  puts  it  down,  or  permits 
it  to  run — hangs  not  only  the  empire  itself,  but  prob- 
ably his  own  destiny,  as  well  as  his  dynasty.  The 
boy  is  reported  from  the  palace  as  not  very  promising 
for  the  future.  And  how  can  a  boy  be  trained  for 
empire  in  such  an  exclusion,  seeing  nobody  but  the 
few,  hearing  only  what  they  choose  to  tell  him,  and 
with  women  and  eunuchs,  in  the  main,  surrounding 
him  ?  The  wild,  fierce  Manchu  blood  that  conquered 
the  empire  is  running  to  water  within  the  walls  of 
the  palace,  and  amid  the  luxuries  of  the  palace  ;  and, 
unless  the  boy  turns  out  to  be  a  wonder,  the  dynasty 
will  be  tumbled  over  for  a  stronger  one,  as  has  hap- 
pened several  times  before  in  the  history  of  China. 

Great  efforts  are  being  made  to  find  a  wife  ISTo.  1 
for  the  boy  emperor — and  he  can  have  as  many  as  he 
pleases,  after  No.  1.  The  pretty  girls,  from  hun- 
dreds and  hundreds  of  miles,  have  been  sent  up  to 
the  capital  as  patterns  for  an  empress ;  but  his 
mother,  the  empress-dowager,  has  not  yet  found  out 
a  wife  for  him.  (She  picked  out  one,  who  was  taken 
to  the  capital  to  be  educated  a  year  for  an  empress, 
but  during  that  year  she  died.)  Boys  and  girls  in 
China  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  selection  of  their 
own  wives.  They  seldom  see,  the  husband  his  wife, 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  CHINA.  207 

or  the  wife  her  husband,  till  the  day  of  marriage. 
The  emperor,  even,  has  got  to  take  what  they  give 
him ;  but  if  No.  1  does  not  suit  or  satisfy,  No.  2,  3,  4, 
5,  6,  and  so  on,  can  be  handmaids.  Some  of  the  rich- 
est provinces  have  just  been  levied  upon,  however,  to 
furnish  silks,  satins,  and  embroideries  for  some  grand 
nuptial  ceremony  soon  to  take  place  in  Pekin.  The 
richest  silk  province  respectfully  protests,  I  see  by 
the  Pekin  Gazette,  against  the  silk  levy  made  upon 
that  province.  The  mandarin  writes  the  requisition 
cannot  be  complied  with,  without  trouble  there ;  and, 
what  is  stranger,  the  Pekin  official  Gazette  publishes 
in  full  the  respectful  remonstrance.  This  Pekin  Ga- 
zette, by-the-way,  is  the  only  real  Chinese  newspaper 
in  the  empire.  It  is  published  daily  here,  and  the 
manuscript  is  furnished  twenty-four  hours  in  advance 
to  the  foreign  ministers,  if  they  desire  it.  It  is  an 
official  record  only,  with  no  dissertations  in  it,  no 
"  editorials,"  only  the  decrees  of  the  Government, 
and  the  reports  and  petitions  of  mandarins  from  the 
provinces. 

But  what  a  long,  dull  yarn !     I  am  weary,  and 
off  to  the  great  wall  in  the  morning. 


LETTEE  XXIV. 

FROM  TEE  GEE  AT  WALL  OF  CHINA. 

On  Top  of  the  Great  Wall  of  China.— Droves  of  Sheep,  Hogs,  Ponies,  Donkeys.— 
Mongolians  and  Manchus. — Speech-making  on  Top  of  the  Great  Wall. — Speech 
of  J.  B.  to  the  Great  Wall. — Tartars,  a  Species  of  Yankees,  leaping  over  all 
Walls.— Outfit  for  the  Trip  from  Pekin  to  the  Great  Wall.— Brick  Tea.— Sheep's- 
tail  Soup. — Eggs  in  Abundance. — Mule  Litters. — Description  of  the  Craft. — The 
Muleteers. — Mingling  'Mire,  Mud,  and  Dust. — Sounding  for  the  Bottom  of  the 
Bogs. — Dodging  into  Farms  and  Gardens. — Boada  in  China  are  Ditches. — The 
Pass  of  Nan-Kow. — First  Night's  Experience  in  a  Mongolian  Inn. — A  Brick 
Oven  to  sleep  on. — Journey  to  the  Wall  over  a  Kough  and  Terrible  Boad. — A 
Series  of  Walls.— A  Lunch  amid  Kulns  of  the  WalL— The  Comfort  of  a  Cup  of 
Cold  Water. 

Ox  TOP  OP  THE  GREAT  WALL  OP  CHINA,  ) 
August  27,  1871.      ) 

Veni,  vidi,  vici.  I  have  clambered  up  on  to  the 
tip-top  of  the  Great  Wall  of  China !  I  have  suffered 
some,  especially  in  bones  and  the  flesh — but  what  of 
that,  now  I  am  here !  Vidi.  I  have  seen  lots  of 
sheep,  with  thick,  fat  tails,  that  make  (report  says), 
the  best  of  soup  (perhaps,  I  have  eaten  some  of  it — 
happy  ignorance — don't  know),  and  have  seen  lots  of 
lean,  lank,  long-eared,  black  hogs,  all  the  way  from 
Mongolia — intelligent  black  hogs,  for  they  under- 
stand two  languages  (more  than  I  do),  the  Mongo- 
lian and  Chinese,  and  they  obey  their  drivers,  unlike 
other  hogs ;  and  I  have  also  seen  lots  of  Mongolians 
— fellows  with  fur  caps  on,  this  hot  summer  weather, 
and  sheep-skin  coats,  working  their  way,  with  their 


FROM  THE   GREAT  WALL  OF  CHINA.  2Q9 

ponies,  and  the  truck  on  them,  to  the  great  imperial 
city.  Well,  I  have  got  now  on  to  the  jumping-off 
place,  and  intend  to  stop,  and  not  jump  off.  The  Mon- 
golian Buddhists  tell  my  man,  Cheng,  "  These  foreign 
devils,  can't  go  much  further,  just  now,  unless  they 
turn  Mohammedans,  for  the  Mohammedans  are  kill- 
ing all  Buddhists"  (out  there  in  Tartary).  As  I  am 
neither  for  Buddha,  nor  for  Mohammed  (only  a  hard- 
shell Baptist),  both  sides  might  try  to  kill  me  unless 
I  enlisted  under  one  banner  or  the  other  ;  and  hence 
I  return  homeward-bound,  now,  and  as  fast  as  I  can 
go  in  the  round-about  European  way,  by  the  Indian 
Sea. 

When,  last  November,  ex-Secretary  Seward  and 
his  party,  with  Admiral  Rodgers  and  his  party,  were 
here,  the  ex-Secretary  made  a  great  speech  to  the 
Admiral,  which  has  been  duly  recorded  in  the  Shang- 
hai (English)  Gazette,  if  not  in  the  Pekin  (official 
Chinese)  Gazette.  It  must  have  been  a  funny  speech, 
funnigrapMcally  reported,  thus  made  up  here  to  the 
crows,  and  the  sparrows,  and  the  black  hogs,  and 
donkeys,  and  mules,  and  some  half-dozen  Americans. 
Nevertheless,  standing  upon  this  great  precedent, 
I  propose  to  make  a  speech,  not  to  Admiral  Rodgers, 
for  he  is  now  off  in  Japan,  but  to  the  Great  Wall  it- 
self. And  here  it  is  : 

"  MR.  GREAT  WALL  OF  CHINA  : 

"  I've  come  some  fifteen  thousand  miles,  from  the  Antip- 
odes, mainly  to  see  you,  but  I  don't  think  you  are  worth  all 
that  trouble.  You  are  a  big  thing,  that  is  certain,  a  mighty 
big  thing ;  but  I  could  have  bought  a  photograph  of  you  for  a 


210  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

Mexican  dollar,  and  it  has  cost  me  many,  to  get  up  here.  I 
won't  come  again,  till,  in  the  metempsychosis,  I  become 
younger  and  greener.  I  don't  know  how  old  you  are,  and 
can't  find  out — only  that  you  are  not  half  as  old  as  Cheops' 
Pyramids,  in  Egypt.  You  were  only  begun,  it  seems,  B.  o.  213, 
and  you  were  not  done  with  till  A.  D.  1368,  if  then.  You  are 
very  long,  to  be  sure — some  say  two  thousand  miles.  Fifty 
thousand  workmen  were  at  one  tune,  so  it  is  stated,  at  work, 
only  repairing  and  extending  you.  But  what's  all  that  to  the 
great  Pacific  Kailroad,  Mr.  Wall,  as  long  as  you  are,  and  going 
through  mountains,  not  up  and  over  them,  as  you  do !  Never- 
theless, I  don't  mean  to  say  you  are  not  a  very  respectable, 
nay,  a  very  wonderful  "Wall. 

"  But,  Mr.  "Wall,  you  were  built,  you  know,  to  keep  off  the 
Yankee  Tartars  from  running  over  you  into  the  flowery  land 
of  China.  Have  you  kept  them  off  ?  No,  never  1  The  Mon- 
golian, Manchu  and  Siberian  Tartars  are  very  like  all  Tartars, 
everywhere,  from  New  England  to  Old  England.  Put  a  lot  of 
people  down  in  a  country  only  half  made  when  the  world  was 
made,  such  as  Old  England  or  New  England  is,  where  nothing 
grows  except  with  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  and  then  very  spar- 
ingly— where  you  need  furs  and  fires  to  keep  warm,  and  strong 
meats  and  strong  drinks  to  keep  alive — and  do  you  think  such 
an  uneasy  people  there  will  not  leap  over  walls,  in  order  to 
get  down  into  the  golden  grain,  the  silver  rice,  the  flowery 
land  of  milk  and  honey  ?  The  Tartar  peeped  over  these  moun- 
tains, and,  tired  of  sheep's  tails,  and  sheep-skins,  and  bear 
meat,  and  tiger  and  leopard  soup,  and  beef  and  butter,  he  de- 
termined to  have  something  better ;  and  hence  he  jumped,  by 
thousands  and  thousands,  over  your  wall,  just  as  we  home 
Yankees  jumped  over  the  Alleghanies,  and  the  Potomac,  and 
the  Eocky  Mountains,  into  sunnier  countries  and  better  lands. 
Man,  by  nature,  is  an  indolent  animal,  and  does  not  like  to  hoe 
rocks,  or  fight  Jack  Frost,  ten  months  in  the  year.  He  is  not 
content  with  crab-apples,  but  wants  persimmons,  grapes,  figs, 
oranges,  bananas,  and  will  have  them.  Man  was  born  with 
the  devil  in  him,  north,  and  the  devil  is  only  melted  out  of  him 
under  the  hot  suns  of  the  south.  Hence,  Mr.  "Wall,  the  great 
Khans  of  Tartary,  from  Genghis  Khan  and  Kulla  Khan,  on,  and 
down,  never  much  minded  the  great  piles  of  granite  and  brick 


FROM   THE   GREAT   WALL   OF   CHINA.  211 

you  have  put  up  here.  They  scaled  the  mountain  tops,  and 
jumped  over,  or  banged  through  the  granite  and  brick  in  the 
valleys.  There  is  no  stopping  Yankees  anywhere — Yankee 
Tartars  in  America,  or  John  Bull  Tartars  in  England,  when 
you  show  them  a  better  country  to  live  in,  than  they  were  born 
in.  Thus,  Genghis  Khan  (A.  D.  1212),  and  Timour  the  Tartar 
— Yankees,  undoubtedly — starting  up  here,  somewhere,  among 
these  rocks  and  caverns,  tired  of  black  hogs,  and  sheep's  tails, 
and  a  nomad  life,  with  no  cabbages  to  eat,  nor  onions,  deter- 
mined to  overrun  the  world,  and  nearly  did  it.  They  ran  over 
the  Eussias,  ran  down  the  Turks  and  Huns,  and  scared  the 
Germans  half  out  of  their  wits,  while  they  scrambled  over  all 
China.  The  Chinese,  however,  did  what  most  Southerners  do 
with  Northerners — captivated  (not  captured)  them,  sweetened 
them,  took  the  barbaric  out  of  them  and  put  the  gentle  in ; 
softened,  humanized,  civilized  them,  till  the  Tartars  themselves 
became  Chinese.  "Walls,  then,  Mr.  Wall,  have  not  half  the  in- 
fluence over  Yankees  as  a  -softer  civilization.  Granite  and 
bricks  and  the  bow  and  arrow  are  nothing  in  comparison  with 
flowers,  fruits,  fields,  figs,  fans,  etc.,  etc.  The  pretty  fans  of 
China  fanned  the  devil  nearly  all  out  of  all  the  fiery  Tartars,  and 
they  quitted  their  horses,  and  took  to  the  hoe  and  the  shovel. 
If  Mazeppa  ever  rode  down  this  way,  through  the  mountain 
passes,  he  is  digging  now,  not  horse-vaulting,  and  singing  Chi- 
nese ditties  and  chants,  not  yelling  and  bellowing  after  hordes, 
and  horses,  and  asses,  and  bullocks  and  calves.  Mazeppa  is  no 
longer  a  nomad,  but  a  farmer,  now,  in  China. 

"  Mr.  Wall  and  Mr.  Mountain  Pass — if  we  had  you  now  in 
Yankee  land,  we  should  run  a  railroad  right  through  you — 
(make  bridges  of  you,  Mr.  Wall) — and  drive  off  these  camels, 
who  are  bringing  on  their  backs  coal  from  your  miserably- 
worked  mines,  Mr.  Mountain ;  and  all  these  asses,  donkeys, 
mules,  and  horses,  that,  by  the  thousands,  are  now  bringing 
things,  in  panniers,  from,  and  to  Mongolia,  and  the  region  be- 
yond. What  a  shame  to  keep  these  thousands  of  men  thus 
employed,  when  one  locomotive  on  an  iron  rail  would  do  all 
their  work  ?  If  you,  Mr.  Wall,  had  fought  the  present  Manchu 
Tartars  now  ruling  China  with  a  locomotive  and  one  big  gun  on 
it,  you,  Chinamen  would  not  be  obliged  to  be  wearing  pig-tails, 
and  a  shaven  head,  as  you  are — a  fashion  these  Manchus  im- 


212  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

posed  upon  you  when  they  hroke  through  this  wall.  True, 
you  have  imposed  upon  them  all  your  other  fashions,  except 
the  little  squeezed  feet — (the  Manchu  women  have  ever  refused 
to  have  their  feet  thus  squeezed  up) — hut  these  hare  heads, 
these  pig-tails,  the  emblems  of  your  subjection  to  the  Northern 
Yankees,  are  very,  very  had. 

"  Now,  Mr.  Wall,  you  have  an  expression  of  my  mind.  I 
shall  take  home  a  piece  of  "  a  hrick  "  in  memory  of  you — a 
whole  brick  I  would  take,  if  my  carpet-bag  were  big  enough 
for  such  big  bricks  as  you  are  made  of;  and  you  must  consider 
this  a  particular  compliment,  for  if  I  should  take  home  a  brick 
of  all  the  wonders  I  am  seeing,  I  should  have  to  take  home  a 
caravan  of  camels,  too,  to  carry  the  load.  Good-by !  " 

But  how  did  you  get  from  Pekin  to  the  Great 
Wall  of  China?  Listen,  and  I  will  tell  you.  Our 
"  fit-out "  was  cold  mutton,  and  beef,  and  chicken, 
and  sugar,  and  tea,  and  liquors  as  needful ;  beds, 
sheets,  blankets,  mosquito  nets,  pillows,  plates,  cups, 
saucers,  with  knives,  forks,  spoons,  etc.,  etc.,  for 
there  is  little  to  be  had  on  the  route  that  an  Ameri- 
can would  like  to  live  on.  Brick  tea  you  can  have 
— the  refuse  tea-dust  of  China,  baked  into  a  brick — 
sheep's  tails  and  mutton  grease,  made,  some  say, 
into  candles,  and  then  mixed  in  a  spup  of  the  tails, 
with  the  tea ;  but  to  such  as  are  not  thus  brought 
up,  the  fare  might  be  hard.  Eggs,  there  are  plenty 
of,  en  route,  and  hens  and  chickens ;  and  where  they 
are,  even  an  American  need  not  starve.  Our  car- 
riages were  what  in  Turkey  they  call  Taktaravans — 
here,  a  mule  litter,  a  large  palanquin  suspended  on 
the  backs  of  two  mules,  lengthwise.  Strong  leather 
bauds  connect  the  points  of  the  shafts  resting  on  the 


FROM  THE   GREAT  WALL   OF   CHINA.  213 

saddles  of  the  mules.  An  iron  pin,  fixed  in  the  top 
of  the  saddle,  passes  through  a  hole  in  the  leather, 
and  so  keeps  it  in  its  place.  The  shafts  are,  of 
course,  long,  to  reach  from  one  mule  to  another,  and 
to  leave  the  animals  plenty  of  room  to  walk.  The 
motion  is  not  at  all  disagreeable — nay,  luxurious, 
when  compared  with  all  the  other  means  of  locomo- 
tion I  have  seen  in  China.  The  saddle  looks  as  if 
it  weighed  a  half  cord  of  wood,  and  the  litter  a  full 
cord.  It  was  so  heavy  that  it  took  four  men  to  lift 
it.  I  stretched  out  and  slept  in  it  pretty  well,  when 
out  late  at  night ;  and  it  was  not  difficult  to  read 
novels  in  it,  when  there  was  nothing  to  see,  or  noth- 
ing else  to  do. 

The  muleteers,  two  men  to  each  litter — one  for  the 
front  mule  and  one  for  the  rear  mule — started  from 
Pekin  early  in  the  morning,  and,  at  the  rate  of  two 
miles  per  hour,  contrived  to  get  out  of  the  city  walls 
in  two  hours.  In  turning  a  sharp  street  corner,  one 
litter  turned  over — for  the  shafts  are  so  long  that 
sharp  corners  cannot  be  turned  with  them ;  but  no 
particular  damage  was  done,  even  to  the  crockery 
ware,  and  none  to  us,  save  the  fright.  We  blocked 
up  a  Pekin  narrow  street,  and  strung  along  a  mile  of 
carts,  front  and  rear,  before  we  were  extricated — with 
an  anxious  crowd  looking  on  and  marvelling  where 
such  strange  "  critters  "  were  going  in  such  vehicles. 
The  roads,  just  now,  were  in  a  mixed  condition  of 
mud,  mire,  and  dust.  Heavy  rains  had  saturated  the 
earth,  and  a  hot  August  sun,  was  drying  them  up, 


214:  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

and  turning  them  into  dust.  Whenever  our  mulet- 
eers saw  a  bog  of  mire  ahead,  in  fear  and  trembling 
they  sounded  for  bottom  with  the  handles  of  their 
whips— (for,  four  hundred  pounds  on  a  mule's  back, 
eight  hundred  pounds  on  two  mules'  backs,  are  likely 
to  sink  them,  if  once  they  get  into  a  Serbonian  bog). 
If  the  passage  was  found  safe,  through  we  floundered ; 
if  not,  we  ascended  the  banks,  and  made  long  cir- 
cuits through  farms,  and  gardens,  and  crops.  Occa- 
sionally we  were  lost  in  the  tall  millet,  or  Indian 
corn,  or  sorghum,  and  the  dogs  barked  at  us,  and  the 
children  rushed  out  to  see  what  had  come.  Occa- 
sionally, too,  a  farmer  would  turn  out,  and  "  swear  " 
we  should  not  tread  down  his  crops  with  mules,  and 
threaten  a  fight ;  but  when  our  man-of-all-work, 
Cheng,  pointed  to  our  European  faces,  and  the  liv- 
eried coolie  who  accompanied  us,  and  who  gave  his 
rank  and  dignity  by  his  livery,  we  were  permitted  to 
trample  down  millet,  or  beans,  or  peas,  or  corn,  or 
any  thing.  Nevertheless,  we  had  a  hard  time  in 
these  by-ways.  The  impassable  bogs  were  numer- 
ous, and  we  threaded  passages  where  mule  litters 
never  went  before.  The  roads  in  China,  I  may  as 
well  tell  you  here,  have  become  excavations,  tunnels, 
ditches  from  long,  long  use,  and  the  practice  of  gath- 
ering up  the  loose  dirt  in  them  to  manure  the  fields ; 
and  into  these  ditches,  whenever  there  is  rain,  the 
water  pours  and  gathers,  and  soon  makes  stagnant 
pools  and  bogs.  These  bogs  in  the  road  were  our 
terror,  and  hence  these  long  fafm  detours. 


FROM  THE   GREAT   WALL  OF  CHINA.  215 

Our  "  breakfast "  was  taken  at  four  p.  M.,  at  Sha- 
ho,  a  village  sixty  li,  or  twenty  miles,  from  Pekin — a 
distance,  with  the  detours,  we  had  been  since  seven 
A.  M.  travelling  over.  Nankow,  the  mouth  of  the 
mountain  pass,  some  fifteen  miles  more  distant,  was 
to  be  our  sleeping  place,  and  we  made  for  it,  after 
breakfast,  with  all  possible  mule  speed,  then  two  or 
two  and  a  half  miles  per  hour.  A  blessed  moon 
lighted  up  our  stony,  rough  way,  or  we  never  should 
have  got  there  that  night.  After  passing  by  and 
around,  I  can  scarcely  say  over,  two  splendid  stone 
bridges,  now  pretty  well  in  ruins,  I  did  not  see  much 
after  leaving  Sha-ho.  In  spite  of  the  horrible  road, 
.  and  the  perils  of  mule  litter  travelling  at  night,  I 
was  rocked  to  sleep,  and  I  slept  soundly  till  we 
reached  Nankow,  eleven  o'clock  at  night.  There, 
there  was  a  terrible  row.  The  whole  caravansera, 
pretty  well  filled  with  travellers,  donkies,  asses,  was 
dead  in  sleep,  and  it  was  only  after  a  loud,  long 
knocking  that  we  could  wake  up  the  master  of  the 
domicile,  and  make  him  understand  we  wanted  wa- 
ter, hot  and  cold,  and  a. place  to  lay  our  heads  in, 
and  to  feed  the  mules  in,  that  night. 

Let  me  now  introduce  you  to  a  N"ankow  hostelry, 
the  kind  existing  all  the  way  now  into  Russia,  and 
far  away,  in  there,  certainly  through  Siberia.  The 
donkeys  and  asses  have  troughs  to  eat  in,  under 
about  as  good  a  cover  as  you  have,  and  close  by  your 
sleeping  chamber ;  and  you  have  an  oven  to  sleep 
on,  and  over  the  oven,  a  mat,  to  keep  the  bricks  from 


216  A   SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

burning  your  skin,  if  the  oven  by  chance  gets  too 
hot.  Thank  the  good  month  of  August,  there  needed 
no  fires  in  our  oven,  and  we  were  not  roasted,  nor 
baked,  as  travellers  sometimes  are  in  December  or 
January.  You,  if  you  arie  old  enough,  remember  the 
old  Russian  (brick)  oven  stoves  in  New  England,  be- 
fore the  days  of  iron.  These  brick  stoves,  especially 
in  the  New-England  school-houses,  were  lit  up,  say  at 
four  A.  M.,  for  the  school,  beginning  at  nine  A.  M.,  by 
which  time  the  school-house  had  become  so  hot,  from 
the  quantity  of  wood  consumed  within  the  stove,  that 
only  salamanders  could  healthily  live  in  the  school- 
house  building.  The  Yankees  got  that  stove  idea 
from  these  Mongols  and  Tartars  up  here.  The  dif- 
ference is,  that  the  Mongolians  turn  them  to  double 
use,  for  beds,  and  blankets,  or  comforters,  while  we 
only  use  them  to  warm  rooms.  On  top  of  the  mat, 
which  was  on  top  of  the  dirty  bricks,  that  had  not 
had  a  sweeping  since  they  were  laid,  and  full  of  all 
sorts  of  harmless  creatures,  that  only  nipped  a  little, 
but  did  not  bite,  we  laid  our  beds.  I  never  slept 
better.  The  donkeys  brayed ;  the  mules  uttered  their 
most  plaintive  lays  for  more  fodder ;  the  muleteers, 
roused  up  at  midnight,  and  wondering  what  new 
fellows  had  come,  sputtered  monosyllabic  yells  that 
would  have  scared  a  traveller  out  of  his  wits  if  he 
had  not  been  hearing  like  yelling  from  his  own  mu- 
leteers all  day  long.  Nevertheless,  after  drinking 
my  tea,  after  eating  my  omelette  (I  never  ask  now 
how  omelettes  are  made,  without  butter  or  milk,  and 


FROM  THE  GREAT  WALL  OF  CHINA.  217 

there  are  none  here),  and  nibbling  my  bread,  I  never 
slept  better.  The  New- York  Fifth  Avenue  has  bet- 
ter, that  is,  softer  beds,  to  be  sure,  and  a  better  table ; 
but  our  railroad  cars  and  steamboats  do  not  prepare 
a  traveller  to  enjoy  them,  as  the  litter  did  me,  in  this 
Yourt,  with  the  horses,  the  mules,  the  donkeys,  the 
Mongolian  and  Chinese  muleteers.  In  a  cold  night, 
I  can  well  fancy,  there  may  be  a  comfort  on  the  hot 
bricks  of  the  oven  you  are  sleeping  over;  but  my 
"  windows  "  were  open,  and  the  pure  air  of  heaven 
was  coming  in  from  the  mountains,  and  not  even  a 
blanket  was  necessary.  We  all  waked  at  5  A.  M.,  men 
and  donkeys,  and  we  all  breakfasted,  I  may  say,  to- 
gether. Early  hours,  the  Chinese  keep.  They  are  no 
laggards  in  the  morning.  Even  the  emperor  gives 
audience  to  his  mandarins  at  5  A.  M.,  who  get  their 
tea  before  they  start  for  the  palace,  and  have  their 
breakfast  on  their  return  at  8  A.  M.  Our  breakfast 
over,  finished  before  6  A.  M.,  we  started  off,  through 
the  mountain-passes,  for  the  wall,  fifteen  miles  off — 
the  ladies  in  sedan-chairs,  with  four  coolies  to  each 
chair,  and  I,  on  the  back  of  an  interesting  mule,  that 
would  do  what  he  pleased,  and,  I  soon  found,  knew 
so  much  more  than  I  did,  about  mountain  travelling, 
that  I  suffered  the  better  informed  beast  to  do  as  he 
pleased. 

What  I  saw — what  cuffs,  kicks,  shakes,  thumps, 
over,  amid,  and  on,  the  loose  rocks,  and  huge  bowl- 
ders, and  mountain-torrents  of  this  terrible  road — no 
matter !  Bells  were  tinkling  on  all  our  mules,  and 


218  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

on  all  the  leading  animals  we  met,  the  one  to  warn 
the  other,  so  as  not  to  be  caught  in  an  impassable 
pass.  The  muleteers  kept  up  a  wild  chatter  with 
their  beasts,  and  the  beasts  seemed  to  understand 
them  well.  We  met  great  flocks  of  black-headed 
sheep,  with  heavy,  short,  fat  tails,  and  otherwise 
very  white  fleeces.  We  met  hogs  by  the  thousands. 
Droves  of  horses  and  donkeys,  too,  were  en  route  for 
the  Pekin  market.  Thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 
of  people  are  daily  passing  over  this  great  highway 
from  China  to  Mongolia  and  Russia,  and  over  such  a 
road,  not  as  good  as  that  old  horse-path  up  and  down 
the  White  (New  Hampshire)  Mountains,  on  either 
side.  Not  five  miles  out  of  Nankow  I  began  to  see 
one  of  the  series  of  walls  that  have  been  erected  in 
this  great  pathway  to  keep  off  Tartar  invasions. 
The  terror  inspired  by  the  outer  tribes  of  the  North 
has  been  such  that  the  Chinese  have  fortified  almost 
the  whole  gap  in  the  mountains.  A  handful  of  men, 
with  modern  artillery,  with  European  handling,  could 
now  keep  off  Genghis  Khan  or  Tamerlane ;  but  not 
with  only  spears,  and  bows,  and  arrows,  once  the 
weapons  of  war,  as  here,  even  now,  to  a  great  extent. 
There  are  four  or  five  series  of  walls,  running  up 
even  to  the  tops  of  the  hills,  before  one  comes  to  the 
Great  Wall.  All  over  the  hills,  by  the  valleys,  are 
the  ruins  of  old  forts  in  the  direction  of  the  road. 
Bloody  battles  have  been  fought  here — many  of 
them — but  the  story  of  them  is  lost  to  us,  for  there  is 
no  historian  before  Agamemnon.  When,  in  olden 


FROM  THE   GREAT  WALL   OF   CHINA.  219 

times,  the  Mongols  were  coming,  the  intelligence  was 
transmitted  into  China  by  beacon-fires,  lighted  on  the 
towers,  and  the  signal  flashed  through  the  Chinese 
dominions,  and  the  mandarins  assembled  their  hosts 
from  the  south  to  repel  the  invader. 

At  last,  as  I  have  already  written,  we  were  tip  an 
ascent  of  rocks,  over  which  the  Great  "Wall  towers, 
some  thirty  or  thirty-five  feet  high,  with  a  granite 
foundation  and  a  brick  crenellated  topping  thereon. 
We  let  loose  our  mules  here,  freed,  pro  tern.,  our 
chair-men,  and  then,  spreading  our  blankets  on  the 
grass  created  by  the  vegetation  grown  around  the 
ruins,  reclined  to  eat  and  to  drink — a  lunch,  or  tiffin, 
as  it  is  called  in  the  East.  The  cup  of  cool  moun- 
tain water  that  for  weeks  and  weeks  I  have  been 
longing  for — water  freed  from  impurities,  and  fresh 
as  the  torrent  just  springing  from  its  native  wells — 
was  here.  No  one  knows  how  good  water  tastes  un- 
less one  has  been  living,  as  I  have  been,  for  weeks,  on 
claret,  beer,  porter,  and  tea,  feeling  it  not  safe  to 
drink  the  water  of  the  country  below ;  and  hence,  I 
now  drank  mountain  water  by  "  the  wholesale,"  and 
became  as  good  a  temperance  man  as  Neal  Dow  in 
Maine. 


LETTER  XXY. 

EETURN    TO    PEKIN. 

The  Ming  Tombs.— The  Grand  Approach  to  them.— All  going  to  ruin.— The  Summer 
Palace  of  the  Emperors. — "  Yueng-Ming-Yuen-Ching,"  the  man-of-all-work. — 
Letters  of  Credit  no  Service  in  Pekin. — No  Coin  or  Currency  in  China. — Sycee. — 
The  North  of  China. — The  Emperor  gives  Audience  at  5  A.  M. — The  Marble  Bridge 
and  the  Lotus.— The  Temple  of  Heaven.— The  Temple  of  Earth.— The  Sacrifices 
in  these  Temples  by  the  Emperor. 

September  1,  1871. 

FROM  the  Great  Wall  of  China  I  went  to  the  Ming 
Tombs  (the  Chinese  imperial  burying-place,  what  the 
Pyramids  were  to  the  Egyptians).  The  Ming  dynasty 
was  a  pure  Chinese  dynasty — no  Tartar  blood  in  it — 
and  one  of  the  Mings  created,  in  a  beautiful  valley 
here,  just  under  the  mountain  road  about,  a  series  of 
burial-places,  now  one  of  the  wonders  of  China,  though 
half  in  ruins,  as  every  thing  is  here.  The  approach 
from  Pekin  (thirty  miles  distant)  into  the  valley  is,  or 
rather  was,  once,  magnificent.  There  are  six  great 
stages,  or  notable  places,  in  the  valley,  to  the  tomb  of 
Yung-lo — a  marble  gateway,  constructed  of  fine  white 
marble,  ninety  feet  long,  fifty  feet  high,  carved  with 
squares  of  flowers ;  then,  a  stone  bridge ;  then,  the 
Dragon  and  Phoenix  gate,  and  seven  marble  bridges 
with  elegant  balustrades ;  then,  the  avenue  of  ani- 
mals, cut  in  bluish  marble  in  colossal  size — two  pairs 


RETURN  TO  PEKIN.  221 

of  lions,  two  of  unicorns,  two  of  camels,  two  of  ele- 
phants, and  two  of  horses.  The  elephants  are  thirteen 
feet  high  and  seven  wide.  Beyond  the  animals  come 
the  military  and  civil  mandarins,  six  on  each  side. 
These  are  all  in  grand  costumes.  Our  mules  found 
these  lion  and  elephant  figures  so  life-like  that  they 
shied  at  them,  trembled  all  over,  and  refused  to  pass 
by.  We  had  to  blind  their  eyes,  and  then  make 
them  follow  a  donkey  who  did  not  appreciate  sculp- 
ture as  well  as  the  mules.  Gradually,  then,  over  a 
paved  road,  we  came  through  persimmon,  or  wild 
mulberry  orchards,  to  the  great  resting-place  and 
tomb  of  Yung-lo.  I  could  fill  a  page  with  an  inter- 
esting topographical  description  of  the  vast  hall,  two 
hundred  and  ten  feet  wide,  and  thirty  feet  deep — of 
its  pillars  of  teak  wood,  twelve  feet  round  and  thirty- 
two  feet  high  to  the  ceiling — but  who,  in  America 
cares  for  the  Mings,  or  the  dead  Mr.  Tung-lo,  whose 
remains  repose  in  the  august  mausoleum  in  the  rear 
of  that  hall?  I  only  hint  of  what  I  saw,  in  order  to 
impress  you  with  the  idea  that  the  Chinese  were  as 
proud  of  mausoleums  as  the  Egyptians  were,  or,  as 
New-Yorkers  are  of  Greenwood  Cemetery.  But  Mr. 
Yung-lo's  and  all  the  other  Ming  tombs  are  rapidly 
going  to  grass.  Another  (Manchu)  dynasty  is  on  the 
throne.  Grass  is  growing  all  over  the  roofs,  and 
wild  weeds  are  in  all  the  courts,  and  often  in  the  halls. 
By-and-by,  it  will  be  as  hard  to  find  where  Mr.  Yung- 
lo  was  buried  as  where  Augustus,  or  Julius  Caesar,  or 
Titius  Livy,  or  Demosthenes,  or  Thucyclides  rested. 


222  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

Dollars  are  wasted  on  great  mausoleums.  A  thou- 
sand years  after  a  man  is  dead,  who  cares  for  his 
dust  and  ashes,  if  any  of  them  are  left  ?  I  ate  eggs 
and  cold  mutton,  and  drank  Bass's  London  beer,  on 
the  floors  of  the  Mings,  within  the  sacred  enclosure, 
and  paid  the  keeper  a  few  cash  (cents)  for  the  privi- 
lege. A  dozen  Chinese  muleteers  would  look  on  to 
see  how  a  Yankee  ate  eggs  and  mutton  with  a  knife 
and  fork,  all  hankering  after  the  to  ~be  empty  bottle, 
invaluable  to  them  as  a  bottle ;  and  such  is  life,  and 
such  is  death,  among  the  Ming  Tombs  ! 

If  one  will  go  to  see  where  Chinese  emperors  are 
buried,  one  ought  to  go,  next,  to  see  where  Chinese 
emperors  lived.  Hence,  we  went  over  a  few  miles, 
some  twenty,  perhaps,  or  more,  to  Tueng-Ming- 
Yuen,  the  once  wonderful  summer  palace  that  the 
British  and  French  burnt  down,  or  blew  up  with 
powder  in  1860.  You  will  remember  that  in  1859 
the  Chinese  declined  to  execute  the  treaties  which 
let  foreign  ministers  into  Pekin,  and  that  Sir  Frede- 
rick Bruce  (who  died  in  Boston,  after  being  the  Brit- 
ish Minister  in  Washington),  and  our  Mr.  Ward, 
were  not  permitted  to  reside  there.  The  British  and 
French  concluded  to  fight  their  way  into  the  capital, 
and  were  successful  in  the  fight.  The  Chinese  vio- 
lated a  truce,  and  murdered  some  Englishmen  and 
French,  whereupon,  in  revenge,  the  summer  palace 
of  the  emperor  was  sacked  and  destroyed  in  part.  It 
is  said  ten  million  dollars'  worth  of  valuables  were 
found  in  it  by  the  soldiers,  who  were  permitted  to 


RETURN  TO  PEKIN.  223 

sack  it,  which  many  of  these  soldiers,  little  under- 
standing values,  sold  for  trifles.  Gardens,  palaces, 
temples,  and  pagodas  on  artificial  hills,  were  all 
sacked.  Judging  by  what  is  now  left  in  ruins,  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  famous  gardens  and  parks  of 
Versailles,  and  Wilhelmshohe,  in  Hesse  Cassel,  are 
not  more  beautiful  than  this  summer  palace,  Yueng- 
Ming-Yuen,  was.  Here  the  emperor  resided  five  or 
six  months  in  the  year,  with  his  wives,  and  his  eu- 
nuchs, and  servants — Pekin,  some  eight  miles  off  in 
sight — and  every  thing  about  him  that  could  give  a 
human,  being  luxury,  ease,  effeminacy.  There  was 
a  lake  for  gondolas  to  glide  in.  There  was  an  arti- 
ficial island,  with  summer-house  on  it,  and  a  bridge, 
magnificently  arched,  leading  .by  a  circuit  to  it. 
There  are  groves  and  tangled  thickets,  left  purposely 
wild  to  contrast  with  the  artificial  structures  all 
about.  Statues  of  many  kinds,  in  marble  and  bronze, 
are  numerous,  some  mutilated,  but  enough  left  to 
show  the  once  great  grandeur  of  the  twelve  square 
miles  within  the  inclosure  of  the  palace.  "We  lunched 
within,  near  dragons  in  marble,  on  a  terrace,  under 
cedars  and  pines ;  and  here,  in  the  life  palace  of  the 
Emperors,  we  had  our  little  feast,  as  the  day  before 
in  the  Ming  Tombs.  Travellers  must  eat  and  drink, 
no  matter  in  what  high  places  their  meal-times  pick 
them  up. 

Weary  and  worn,  after  four  days  of  hard  excur- 
sions, we  returned  to  the  great  city,  and  the  mud  we 
had  found  in  it  two  weeks  ago  was  now  dust  and 


224:  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

flying  dirt,  and  flying  dirt  and  dust.  I  am  beginning 
to  think  my  first  entree  into  Pekin  in  the  mud  has 
made  me  do  injustice  to  its  streets.  One  does  not 
need  seven-leagued  boots  now  to  get  over  its  ditches 
and  pools.  The  springless  carts  are  endurable  where 
there  are  no  pavements,  and  it  is  the  fashionable 
vehicle  I  see  now,  with  curtains,  and  covers,  and 
paint,  and  vermilion ;  and  therefore  not  so  very  bad 
to  look  at.  But  custom  fits  the  eye  for  almost  any 
thing.  Pekin  looks  vastly  better  to  me  than  it  did 
at  first.  I  think  I  could  exist  here,  if  there  was  no 
other  place  to  live  in.  The  air  is  exhilarating,  and 
the  climate  has  been  beautiful  since  I  came  here.  So 
much  in  apology  for  first  impressions  in  Pekin. 

I  have  written  of  "  Cheng,"  my  dragoman,  inter- 
preter, cook,  valet,  waiter,  man-of-all-work,  and  a 
genius  besides,  who  only  asks  ten  dollars  (Mexican) 
per  month,  and  pickings.  The  ten  Mexicans  turn 
out  to  be  the  very  smallest  part  of  the  pay — for  I 
arn  wholly  in  his  power.  I  cannot  enter  a  temple 
without  him,  or  get  out  of  one,  or  do  without  him 
at  any  time,  anywhere.  Cheng's  genius  is  best 
displayed  hereabout  on  currency,  and  I  can  rec- 
ommend him  to  the  President  for  his  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  as  long  as  the  paper-money  system 
exists  in  America.  Cheng  will  turn  a  Mexican  dol- 
lar into  nothing,  by  the  exchanges,  through  the 
bankers,  a  little  quicker  than  it  can  be  done  in  "Wall 
Street,  New  York,  or,  in  Montgomery  Street,  San 
Francisco.  I  give  him  Mexicans,  and  he  exchanges 


RETURN  TO  PEKIN.  225 

them  for  sycee,  silver  (chopped-up  silver,  generally), 
and  he  exchanges  that  into  the  paper  money  of  Pekin, 
which  is  not  current  ten  miles  out  of  the  city.  They 
have  paper  money  here  in  Pekin  only,  just  as  we 
have  "stamps"  in  the  United  States — the  lowest 
value,  ten  of  our  cents  ;  but  underneath  and  beyond 
this  is  "  cash,"  in  strings  of  copper,  one  thousand 
to  twelve  hundred  of  which  make  a  dollar,  and  on  a 
journey,  you  have  to  take,  or  ought  to  take,  strings 
of  cash  weighing  enough  to  load  a  mule.  With  a 
respectably  big  good  bill  of  credit  from  New  4Tork  or 
London,  I  cannot  get  a  cent  from  it  here,  in  Pekin 
(there  are  no  bills  of  exchange  drawn  here  on  any- 
where), and  were  it  not  for  the  kindness  and  trust  of 
the  Comprador  (financial  officer)  of  the  Russian  Lega- 
tion, I  could  not  have  gone  to  "  the  wall,"  or  get  out  of 
Pekin.  I  brought  up  from  Tien-tsin,  here,  as  many 
Mexican  dollars  as  I  dared  to  carry,  but  they  were 
soon  exhausted  in  the  temptation  of  the  shops  of  Pe- 
kin. The  currency  of  China  is  in  a  most  abominable 
state.  The  Government  money  is  trusted  in  nothing 
but  in  its  copper  coinage.  Even  Mexican  dollars 
will  not  pass  among  the  country  people.  Silver  only 
is  used,  and  that,  everywhere  goes  by  weight.  There 
are  no  Chinese  coins ;  there  is  no  mint.  The  Gov- 
ernment would  not  be  trusted  to  have  one,  so  corrupt 
is  it  believed  to  be,  or  has  been,  in  times  gone  by,  in 
the  coinage  of  money,  or  in  the  issuance  of  paper, 
which,  in  large  quantities,  it  once  put  forth,  as  de- 
scribed in  the  travels  of  the  Venetian  Marco  Polo. 
11 


226  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

Before  I  leave  these  regions  of  North  China, 
from  whence  there  is  no  emigration,  save  into  Mon- 
golia and  Manchuria — none,  certainly,  to  America — 
I  must  pay  a  passing  tribute  to  the  general  appar- 
ent kindness  of  the  people,  and  the  safety  for  the 
European  traveller.  No  one  has  designed  or  inti- 
mated harm  to  us,  either  in  the  lone  villages  or  on 
the  River  Peiho,  when  exposed  all  night  on  the  sam- 
pan boats,  or  en  route  from  Tung  Chow  and  Pekin  to 
the  Great  "Wall — far,  far  into  China's  interior.  We 
have  scarcely  ever  felt  the  least  sense  of  insecurity. 
Our  lives  for  days  and  days  have  been  at  the  mercy 
of  Chinamen,  and  no  one  has  harmed  us,  on  the  con- 
trary, all,  though  curious  to  see,  have  been  hospitable 
to  us.  Ever  since  the  wars  between  Great  Britain  and 
France,  a  foreigner  seems  to  bear  with  him  a  charmed 
power  for  protection.  Though  provoked,  as  the  Chi- 
nese must  have  been,  by  the  burning  of  the  Emperor's 
summer  palace,  even  amid  its  ruins,  the  people  all 
about  were  civil — so  civil,  that  when  requested  to 
let  us  eat  in  peace,  without  the  curious  crowds  usu- 
ally gathering  around,  they  all  cheerfully  departed, 
and  peeped  from  corners  only,  at  a  distance,  fancying 
they  were  out  of  our  sight.  I  have  no  gun  with  me, 
no  revolver,  and  I  deem  the  carrying  of  them  more 
unsafe  to  my  own  surroundings  than  any  protection 
they  would  give  from  any  imaginary  perils  from  the 
population  about  me. 

I  have  good  opportunities  now  to  see  farm  life, 
garden  life,  rural  life,  in  general,  The  agriculture, 


RETURN  TO  PEKIN.  227 

especially  tlie  terrace  agriculture,  is  not  what  I  ex- 
pected to  see.  Farming  is  not  carried  to  such  per- 
fection as  in  Japan.  Mountain  land  is  not  rescued 
from  its  barrenness  where  it  might  be;  but  every  spot 
of  good  land  is  put  under  cultivation  for  millet,  or 
sorghum,  or  corn,  or  peas,  or  beans,  etc.  The  sor- 
ghum runs  up  to  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  high,  and  its 
stalks  and  roots  are  used  for  fuel  in  winter.  There 
is  no  grass  land  in  this  part  of  China,  and  hence 
few  or  no  cattle  are  raised  here.  There  are  no  green 
fields,  therefore,  though  often  green  hills,  and  these 
are,  now,  as  green  as  in  Switzerland ;  and  very  Swiss- 
like  among  the  mountains,  with  the  Swiss  disease  of 
the  goitre  among  the  women  there.  And  on  these 
hills  there  are  sometimes  cattle  and  goats.  A  coun- 
try thus  all  ploughed,  and  hoed,  and  cultivated,  its 
plains,  now  full  of  crops  and  teeming  with  agricul- 
tural wealth,  is  a  novelty  to  an  American  eye.  I 
could  see  nothing  but  crops,  for  miles  and  miles,  as  I 
wandered  through  the  fields,  and  the  field  paths, 
called  roads.  There  are  some  few  fruits  here — the 
apple,  now  ripening,  not  bad — the  peach,  not  good 
nor  bad,  and  the  grape,  excellent  as  a  garden 
grape.  Figs  and  pomegranates  are  growing  in  the 
gardens  of  the  Legation  about  me,  but  they  are 
housed  in  winter.  The  winter  here,  indeed,  must  be 
terrible,  judging  from  the  good,  thick  ice  I  see  on 
the  table,  and  from  the  abundance  of  furs  and  skins 
of  all  sorts  in  the  markets,  offered  for  sale  as  cloth- 
ing. The  sun  in  summer  is  too  fiery  hot,  and  in 


228  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

midday,  the  safest  way  is  to  keep  out  of  its  rays.  But 
the  climate  of  Pekin  I  have  found  agreeable  and 
healthy,  and  in  the  mountains  not  far  off,  the  air  is  as 
pure  as  in  Switzerland,  or  in  Oregon,  or  in  New 
Hampshire.  Every  one  below  in  the  unhealthy 
regions  told  me,  "  it  was  as  much  as  a  man's  life  was 

O  7 

worth  "  to  come  to  Pekin  as  a  tourist  in  August ; 
but, 1  have  found  myself  improved  in  health  and 
vigor.  April,  May,  September  and  October,  however, 
are  the  safest  months  to  be  here.  Pekin  is  cut  off 
from  the  rest  of  the  world  in  winter,  for  ice  blocks  up 
every  stream,  everywhere,  about  here,  and  only  long 
and  tedious  overland  travel  then  is  practicable. 

•  •      •  •  •  •  • 

Pekin,  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  is  the  busi- 
est hour  of  the  day.  Later  in  the  day,  when  the  sun 
is  hot,  no  one  ventures  out  unless  compelled  so  to  do. 
After  some  difficulty,  a  horse  was  procured  that  would 
allow  a  lady  to  mount  him  (the  horses  here  are  so 
unaccustomed  to  women  that  they  are  frightened  by 
them — their  dresses,  etc.).  I  started,  with  one  of  the 
gentlemen  attached  to  the  English  Legation,  for  the 
celebrated  marble  bridge,  about  three  miles  from  the 
Russian  Legation.  "We  met,  just  at  the  outside  of  the 
gate,  a  long  train  of  camels ;  some  heavily  laden  with 
bags  of  merchandise,  others  kneeling,  waiting  pa- 
tiently for  their  load — all  awkward,  ugly  things,  and 
at  this  season  of  the  year,  they  are  looking  their 
ugliest,  as  they  are  shedding  their  coats.  The  streets 
are  filled  with  them,  and  in  close  proximity  to  them 


RETURN  TO  PEKIN  229 

are  the  tiny  donkeys,  looking  even  smaller  from  con- 
trast. There  are  no  carriages.  As  we  wound  our 
way  slowly  in  and  out  of  this  motley  crowd,  and 
through  the  dirt  of  Pekin,  we  attracted  quite  as  much 
curiosity  as  the  novel  sights  excited  in  me.  In  many 
places  the  women  were  chatting  to  each  other  on 
their  door-steps.  As  we  approached,  some  would 
rush  in  (or  rather  Tiobble,  owing  to  their  cramped,  de- 
formed feet)  and  shut  the  doors,  but  peep  through 
the  cracks  until  the  foreign  devils  had  passed.  They 
were  all,  notwithstanding  the  early  hour,  painted 
with  red  and  white ;  their  hair  arranged  and  glued 
with  a  vegetable  wax,  and  elaborately  decorated  with 
artificial  flowers.  They  make  these  flowers  very 
prettily,  and  sell  them  very  cheap.  The  old  gray- 
haired  grandmothers  will  have  a  bunch  of  these  bright 
flowers  on  their  heads.  Carts  were  passing  us,  with 
outriders.  These  carts  were  painted  red,  the  wheels 
placed  farther  back  than  the  common  carts,  the  at- 
tendants dressed  with  the  official  cap,  surmounted  by 
a  long,  red  tassel.  I  found  these  were  the  mandarins 
— high  officials — going  to  an  audience  at  the  palace. 
The  emperor  receives  his  ministers  at  five  o'clock 
every  morning,  and  has  an  audience  until  10  or  11 
A.  M.  We  now  reached  the  Roman  Catholic  Cathe- 
dral. But  as  we  had  visited  the  Cathedral  and  Con- 
vent a  few  days  before,  and  the  Sisters  had  shown  us 
their  schools  and  Chinese  children,  their  embroidery, 
etc.,  we  did  not  stop,  but  rode  on  to  the  bridge.  We 
almost  had  to  ride  over  the  beggars  that  thronged 


230  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

around  us — so  dirty,  so  covered  with  sores,  that  it 
made  one  sick  to  look  at  them.  Like  all  of  that  class, 
they  make  the  most  of  their  disgusting-looking  ail 
ments. 

The  marble  bridge  itself  is  beautiful,  built  ever 
so  many  years  ago — I  am  afraid  to  say  how  many ; 
and,  wonderful  for  China,  it  is  in  fair  repair.  But 
the  most  beautiful  thing,  to  my  eyes,  was  the  lake 
around  this  bridge,  the  whole  surface  of  which  was 
covered  with  the  lotus  flower  in  full  bloom — of  a  beau- 
tiful pink  shade,  with  large  leaves,  some  lying  flat  on 
the  surface,  others  coiled  up,  as  we  had  seen  them 
represented  in  so  many  of  the  temples,  both  in  Japan 
and  China.  The  lotus  is  a  sacred  flower.  Near  the 
wall  of  the  palace  was  an  odd-looking  temple,  very 
dilapidated  and  neglected.  This  proved  to  be  a  Mo- 
hammedan mosque,  built  by  one  of  the  Emperors  for 
a  favorite  wife,  who,  after  living  here  a  few  years,  be- 
came so  homesick  that  he  built  this  Moorish  temple, 
for  her  to  look  upon  a  home-scene ;  but  even  then  she 
was  only  permitted  to  look  from  a  tower  built  inside 
of  the  palace  walls.  Poor  Chinese  Empress.  What 
a  sad  lot  to  be  selected  to  wear  the  ermine  in  China ! 
"We  then  rode  past  and  around  the  temple  that  the 
Emperor  uses  to  pray  for  rain.  As  this  temple  is  con- 
stantly used  it  is  kept  in  good  r.epair,  and  brilliantly 
decorated  with  many  colors.  Again  we  met  many 
carts,  horses,  donkeys,  and  a  crowd  standing  and 
waiting.  This  is  the  great  palace.  While  I  stood  gaz- 
ing— for  we  foreigners  are  not  permitted  on  those  holy 


RETURN  TO  PEKIN.  231 

grounds — a  grand  high  mandarin  drove  up,  alighted 
from  his  cart,  and  entered  the  sacred  precincts.  He 
was  in  his  best  robes,  of  dark-blue  satin,  embroidered 
with  many  colors  ;  his  cap  surmounted  with  a  long 
tassel  and  blue  button.  We  next  made  our  way 
through  the  market.  The  attendants  of  these  grand 
mandarins  were  busy  getting  their  breakfasts — men, 
horses,  dogs,  donkeys,  pigs,  and  some  few  women,  in 
a  heterogeneous  mass — and  not  one  single  foreigner 
had  we  met  in  all  this  long  ride. 


FRIDAY,  August  25. 

This  morning,  in  our  early  ride,  we  decided  to 
turn  our  horses'  heads  toward  the  Temple  of  Heaven, 
and  determined  to  enter,  if  possible,  by  strategy  or 
bribery.  The  Chinese  strongly  object  to  foreigners 
(especially  foreign  women)  entering  such  holy 
grounds.  They  are  reserved  for  the  Emperor  and 
laigh  officers.  The  Emperor  comes  here  to  offer  sac- 
rifices and  pray  for  his  ancestors  once,  at  least,  every 
year.  On  one  or  two  other  great  occasions  during 
the  year,  he  may  come  here  to  offer  prayers.  During 
the  rest  of  the  time  this  great  park  of  many  acres, 
full  of  beautiful  trees,  walks,  lakes,  and  flowers,  is 
shut  up,  and  left  to  the  care  of  a  few  Chinese,  who 
neglect  it,  and  allow  weeds  to  overgrow  all  of  the 
paths,  so  that  the  undergrowth  spoils  the  beautiful 
avenues  of  trees.  On  our  way  to  this  Temple  of 
Heaven  we  rode  through  the  Pekin  fish,  vegetable, 


232  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   HUN. 

and  fruit  markets.  The  trades-people  are  totally  re- 
gardless of  the  comforts  of  either  pedestrians  or 
equestrians,  as  they  erect  their  temporary  tents  in 
the  middle  of  the  streets ;  and  in  our  winding  way 
we  were  often  compelled  to  bend  our  heads  to  our 
horses'  necks,  to  pass  under  these  tents;  but  they 
were  all  good-natured,  and  I  felt  amply  repaid  by  the 
many  new  sights  it  gave  me  of  Chinese  life.  The 
fruit  market  was  particularly  attractive,  and  the  fruit 
was  arranged  with  quite  an  idea  for  effect  as  to 
color  and  variety.  As  we  passed  on  to  the  south  of 
the  city,  we  met  a  funeral  procession,  the  mourners 
(the  men  of  the  family)  dressed  in  long,  white  robes ; 
then  a  crowd  of  hired  servants  surrounded  the  cart 
holding  the  coffin ;  and  the  musicians  follow.  This 
was  only  the  funeral  of  a  very  ordinary  individual. 
The  higher  the  man's  position,  the  greater  the  funeral 
procession.  On  our  right,  we  now  see  the  Temple 
of  Earth  (or  Agriculture),  where  the  Emperor  goes 
every  spring  to  plough ;  on  the  left,  the  Temple  of 
Heaven.  We  rode  rapidly  across  the  open  field,  hop- 
ing to  conceal  our  advance  to  the  temple  gate  by  the 
walls,  and  so  to  approach  near  enough  to  the  gates  to 
ride  in  before  they  could  be  closed  upon  us.  But  the 
"  Heathen  Chinee "  were  too  quick  for  us,  and  tri- 
umphantly slammed  the  gates  together,  one  minute 
.  and  a  half  too  soon  for  us.  We  talked,  bribed,  threat- 
ened ;  they  held  out  to  make  us  bribe  more,  and  at 
last  slowly  swung  back  the  heavy  gate.  We  found 
this  first  wall  enclosed  many  acres ;  the  trees,  evi- 


RETURN   TO  FEKIN.  233 

dently,  many  hundred  years  old,  and  a  beautiful  ave- 
nue, formed  of  large  trees  meeting  overhead,  extended 
from  this  first  gate  to  the  second,  a  distance  of  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile.  Here,  again,  we  were  refused  admit- 
tance, until  further  bribery  was  resorted  to.  Even  then 
they  insisted  upon  our  dismounting,  as  the  grounds 
were  too  sacred  for  horses.  The  distance  from  the  sec- 
ond to  the  third  gate  was  twice  as  great  as  the  first 
one ;  and  then,  mounting  some  dozen  steps,  we  were  on 
a  raised  terrace,  running  from  the  north  to  the  south 
of  the  temple  grounds.  At  the  south  was  a  large  cir- 
cular marble  altar,  built  in  three  terraces,  each  terrace 
raised  nine  feet,  and  on  the  top,  it  is  thirty  or  forty 
feet  in  diameter.  Partially  surrounding  this  altar, 
on  the  southeast,  are  the  urns  for  burning  the  sacri- 
fices, and  offerings  of  silk,  etc.  The  animals  for 
sacrifice  must  be  selected  with  great  care.  They  are 
bullocks,  two  years  old,  without  blemish — the  best 
of  their  kind.  They  are  fed  in  the  park  which  sur- 
rounds the  altar.  The  Emperor,  every  December  21, 
proceeds  to  the  Temple  of  Heaven  in  an  elephant 
carriage.  Since  the  death  of  the  last  Emperor  all 
the  elephants  have  died;  and  as  the  boy  Emperor 
will  be  inaugurated  next  year,  the  King  of  Siam,  it 
is  said,  is .  to  send  him  two  white  elephants  to  draw 
his  carriage  when  he  goes  to  offer  his  prayers  and 
sacrifices  in  the  Temple  of  Heaven.  On  entering 
these  sacred  grounds,  the  Emperor  first  goes  to  the 
Tablet  Chapel,  on  the  north  side  of  the  grounds. 
Here  he  offers  incense  to  Shang-ti,  and  to  his  ances- 


234:  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

tors,  with  three  kneelings  and  nine  prostrations. 
This  chapel  is  one  of  the  best  preserved  I  have  seen 
in  Pekin.  The  roof  is  richly  ornamented  with  carv- 
ing and  brilliant  coloring ;  the  columns  (that  support 
the  roof,  which  is  made  pagoda-like,  three  stories 
high)  are  more  than  two  feet  in  diameter,  made  of 
wood,  plastered  with  crimson,  and  painted  all  over 
with  gold  beasts,  birds,  and  fishes,  as  well  as  I  could 
decipher.  The  marble  terraces  and  steps,  both  at  the 
north  and  south  altars,  are  handsomely  carved ;  but 
weeds  are  growing  up,  mouldering,  and  covering  even 
these  beautiful  things.  Next  year,  I  suppose,  all 
will  be  made  as  bright  and  beautiful  as  thousands  of 
workmen  can  make  them.  The  sacrifice  at  the  north 
altar  takes  place  at  the  beginning  of  spring.  The 
Emperor  goes  from  his  home  in  the  city  to  the  altar, 
to  meet  there  the  new-come  spring,  and  offer  prayer 
to  Shang-ti  for  a  blessing  on  the  labors  of  the  hus- 
bandman. Here,  also,  as  at  the  south  altar,  are  seen 
the  green  furnace  for  the  bullock  sacrifice,  and  the 
eight  open-work  iron  urns  in  which  the  offerings  of 
silk  are  burnt.  An  urn  is  added  when  an  Emperor 
dies.  A  plain,  uncolored,  and  coarsely-woven  silk 
cloth  is  preferred  for  these  offerings.  Prayer  for  rain 
is  offered  at  the  south  altar  in  the  summer.  On  oc- 
casions of  drought  the  Emperor  sometimes  goes  on 
foot  to  the  "  Hall  of  Penitent  Easting."  This  is  to 
indicate  that  his  anxiety  of  mind  forbids  him  to 
seek  bodily  ease  while  his  subjects  are  suffering. 
The  anger  of  Heaven  is  a  sign  that  there  is  a  fault 


RETURN  TO  PEK1N.  235 

in  the  prince.     He,  therefore,  lays  aside  his  state  for 
the  time. 

The  distance  to  be  walked  is  three  English  miles, 
and  it  may  be  at  a  time  of  year  when  the  heat  is 
great  (and  it  is  certain  to  be,  when  the  dust  is  many 
inches  deep).  He  may,  however,  return  on  horse- 
back. This  is  a  special  ceremony.  There  is  also  a 
regular  prayer  and  sacrifice  for  rain  offered  about 
the  time  of  the  summer  solstice.  At  this  time  the 
Emperor  kneels  on  the  top  step  or  platform  of  the 
altar,  and  his  officers  arrange  themselves  on  the 
twenty-nine  steps  and  terraces  behind  him.  The 
prayer  is  then  presented  and  read.  It  is  then  placed 
before  Shang-ti  on  the  offering  of  silk.  The  prayer, 
which  is  written  on  silk,  is  then  taken  to  the  iron 
urns,  and  there  burnt.  The  temples  and  grounds  are 
full  of  interest.  Still,  you  are  never  impressed  with  a 
belief  in  the  religion  of  China.  The  mould,  dust,  and 
decay  cover  and  penetrate  every  thing. 


LETTER  XXYI. 

RETURNING  SOUTHWARD. 

A  Traveller  retracing  his  Steps. — Tung  Chow,  on  the  Peiho  River. — The  Wheel- 
barrow Traffic. — Death  to  the  Coolies. — Processions  en  route. — Of  Funerals 
and  "Weddings.— A  Good  Story  told  of  Gov.  Seward.— Mistaking  a  Funeral  Pro- 
cession for  an  Ovation  to  Himself. — Expense  of  Travelling  as  a  Grandee. — A  Tem- 
ple for  a  Hotel.— Running  the  Gauntlet  of  the  Junks  to  Tien-tsin.— The  Noisy 
Monosyllables  of  the  Chinese.— Huge  Pyramids  of  Salt.— Home,  Sweet  Home.— 
The  Szechuen. — Under  a  Yankee  Captain  from  Maine. — The  Grapes  of  the 
Peiho.— The  Boiling  Screw  Steamers  of  the  Yellow  Sea.— Rivalry  of  British  and 
American  Steamers. — Chinese  Customs  collected  by  Foreigners. — The  American 
Flag  driven  off. — Manufactures  driven  off. 

SHANGHAI,  September  10,  1871. 

RETRACING  one's  steps  is  not  a  traveller's  pleasure. 
En  avcmt  is  the  watchword  in  going,  as  well  as  in 
fighting.  But  in  China  an  American  sees  so  much 
of  the  new,  that  reseeing  opens  to  him  novelty  after 
novelty.  We  left  Pekin  at  noon,  a  hot  sun  on  our 
backs,  good  for  the  rhenmatism,  which  at  this  season 
of  the  year,  up  there,  hits  one,  when  sitting  out  and 
enjoying  the  night  breezes.  I  was  on  horseback — 
no  more  springless  carts  for  me,  though  Mongolian 
horses  are  rather  tricky;  and  we  had  a  handsome 
escort  of  young  Englishmen,  attached  to  the  Eng- 
lish Legation,  as  student  interpreters,  some  of  whom 
went  sixteen  miles,  all  the  way  to  Tung  Chow,  where 
we  take  boats  to  go  down  the  Peiho  River.  "We 
tea-ed  on  the  road.  Inns,  here,  ever  sell  tea — none, 


RETURNING   SOUTHWARD.  237 

whiskey,  rum,  or  brandy — and  tea,  I  am  finding  more 
and  more,  is  a  great  refresher  to  the  traveller,  with- 
out cream  or  sugar,  even.  What  most  rearrested  my 
attention  now,  was  the 'immense  number  of  wheel- 
barrows, wheeling  merchandise  from  the  Peiho  River 
to  Pekin.  These  wheelbarrows,  with  one  wheel  only 
in  the  centre,  are  so  overladen  that  it  would  seem  im- 
possible for  men  to  manage  them,  if  you  did  not  see 
them  doing  it.  Tons  seemed  to  be  on  them ;  and  how 
the  man  in  the  middle,  with  a  strap  over  his  shoulders, 
over  the  wheelbarrow,  handles  or  manages  to  live 
under  the  burden  is  astonishing.  Forty  years  of  age 
is  said  to  be  the  oldest  of  this  class  of  coolies.  This 
middle  man,  though,  often  has  a  mule  pulling  ahead  of 
him,  and  on  the  sides  of  the  wheelbarrow,  are  two  men 
if  not  more,  to  steady.  Over  the  paved  road,  full  of  all 
sorts  of  deep  holes,  worn  by  years  and  years  of  wheel- 
ing, go  these  wheelbarrows,  with  their  loads,  for  all  the 
interior  of  this  northern  part  of  China,  and  for  Mon- 
golia and  Manchuria.  A  steel  rail,  or  iron,  might  be 
laid  at  little  expense  over  this  level-paved  road,  but 
it  is  not  permitted.  A  locomotive  rail  would  do  the 
transportation  for  one-twentieth  of  the  present  cost. 
"  But,"  say  the  authorities,  "  this  would  throw  thou- 
sands of  the  coolies  out  of  employ !  "  The  reply  to 
this  has  been,  "  So  do  junks ;  so  does  the  Grand 
Canal."  "  "Why  not  destroy  junks  and  canals,  and 
let  coolies  and  wheelbarrows  do  all  the  work  every- 
where? Why  endure  horses,  and  camels,  and 
mules  ? " 


238  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

We  met  several  processions  en  route,  some  funeral, 
some  wedding.  These  are  very  imposing,  both  of 
them,  very  showy  and  very  flashy.  They  tell  a  good 
story  in  Pekin  of  Gov.  Seward,  when  here — doubt- 
less a  lie,  but  too  good  a  story  to  be  lost  for  that. 
The  expectations  of  the  ex- Governor  were  said  to  be 
great,  when  he  entered  the  great  capital  of  this  great 
empire,  with  which  he  had  made  a  great  treaty; 
and  he  therefore  indulged  in  great  expectations  of  a 
great  welcome.  As  he  entered  the  gates  of  Pekin,  a 
great  funeral  procession  was  coming  out  with  music, 
catafalque,  etc.,  etc.,  all  as  imposing  as  a  grand  pro- 
cession of  some  great  dead  man  could  well  be  made. 
The  Governor  was  entering  with  the  marine  band  of 
the  Colorado,  mounted  on  donkeys,  as  this  grand  pro- 
cession was  going  out.  The  great  living  and  the 
great  dead  thus  met.  The  Governor,  naturally 
enough,  concluded  this  was  in  honor  of  his  grand 
entree,  and  he  rose,  and  rose,  in  his  open  sedan-chair, 
and  bowed,  and  bowed,  and  then  ordered  a  halt,  and 
got  out,  and  bowed,  and  bowed  again,  to  the  cata- 
falque of  the  dead.  The  Chinese  think  all  foreigners 
are  rather  mad,  and  hence  did  not  marvel  over  it  as 
much  as  they  might ;  but  when  Gov.  Seward  found 
out  what  he  had  done,  the  story  is,  he  was  more  mad 
than  pleased. 

My  exit  and  my  entrance  were  not  thus  grand ;  in, 
on  a  cart,  and  out,  on  a  horse — but  so  much  the  better, 
for,  to  be  a  grandee,  or  to  travel  as  a  grandee,  is  a 
grand  expense.  The  kindly  Russian  protection  under 


RETURNING  SOUTHWARD.  239 

which  I  had  fallen,  relieved  me  from  the  many  an- 
noyances of  travel,  all  the  way  from  Tien-tsin  up 
to  Tung  Chow,  and  on  to  Pekin ;  but  when  the 
Russians  delivered  me  up,  on  the  return,  at  Tung 
Chow,  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  Chinese,  the  trou- 
bles began.  Everybody  wanted  something — what  f 
and  what, /b^  f — who  can  tell,  that  speaks  no  Chinese, 
or  understands  it  less  when  spoken?  One  stately 
fellow,  however,  in  a  semi-official  hat,  extorted  a  few 
dollars  by  an  appeal  to  our  "  grandeur."  "  Every 
thing  has  been  paid,"  said  I.  "  True,"  the  transla- 
tion was  to  me ;  "  but  great  people  always  pay  more 
than  little  people !  "  "Who  could  help  paying  after 
that?  The  extra  Mexicans  were  forked  over,  and 
without  grumbling.  (Mem. — If  one  would  travel 
economically,  never  travel  as  "  great  people.") 

At  Tung  Chow — a  big,  walled  city,  by  the  way — 
we  were,  by  grace  and  favor,  re-tumbled  into  the 
Temple  of  Fang-Wang-Meaow.  The  priests  were  as 
good  (to  us)  as  if  they  had  been  Christian  priests,  and 
we,  first-class  Buddhists.  Wearied  and  worn,  they 
made  every  thing  as  comfortable  as  possible  for  us, 
bargained  for  us,  and  provided  us  with  sampans 
(house  boats),  to  take  us  down  river ;  and  at  midnight 
bade  us  good-by,  as  we  embarked  in  them  to  return 
to  Tien-tsin.  "We  here  regathered  our  "  traps  " — beds, 
bedding,  blankets,  dishes,  and  other  household  re- 
sources— and  as  the  moon  was  rising,  and  we  were  bid- 
ding good-by  in  the  distance  to  the  Pagoda  of  Tung 
Chow,  we  went  to  sleep.  "What  good  philosophy  this 


240  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

is,  thought  I,  when  going  to  sleep — in  an  open  boat, 
amid  countless  Chinese  boats  on  the  river,  full  of  all 
sorts  of  people  !  But  what  is  the  use  of  worrying  ? 
Between  springless  carts,  mule-litters,  and  a  hot  horse- 
back ride,  on  a  hard-going  horse,  with  every  bone  and 
muscle  aching,  I  could  have  slept,  I  am  sure,  even  in 
the  City  Hall  park  (New  York),  with  a  blanket  about 
me  ;  but  I  doubt  if  my  pockets  would  have  been  as 
safe,  or  boots  returned,  if  left  outside  the  railing. 

We  were  only  thirty-six  hours  returning  to  Tien- 
tsin (one  hundred  and  twenty  miles),  the  current 
carrying  us — (fare  for  three  house  boats,  seven  dol- 
lars each,  twenty-one  dollars  in  all).  Nothing  re- 
markable turned  up  until  we  began  to  run  the  junk 
gauntlet  near  Tien-tsin,  and  the  junks  now  are  not 
so  crowded  together,  and  crowding,  as  earlier  in  the 
year.  But,  me  being  judge,  it  is  as  much  as  a  man?s 
life  is  worth  to  run  this  junk  gauntlet  in  this  narrow 
river,  at  this  season  of  the  year;  and  yet  this  judg- 
ment of  mine  is  not  worth  much,  for  very  few  acci- 
dents, I  am  told,  occur.  We  went  on — our  crew 
shouting,  screaming,  squealing,  and  squeezing,  a  thou- 
sand other  crews,  with  like  shouts  and  screams,  that 
shake  tender  nerves,  but  seldom  scare.  A  Chinaman 
will  make  more  noise  for  nothing  than  any  other 
class  of  men  on  earth ;  and  their  monosyllables,  on  the 
key,  alto  and  altissimo,  here  become  terrific.  I  had 
so  many  new  things  to  see  going  up,  that  I  did  not  well 
see  the  huge  pyramids  of  salt,  piled  up  on  the  river 
for  miles.  Salt  is  a  government  monopoly  here,  as  in 


RETURNING   SOUTHWARD.  241 

more  civilized  nations — as  in  ours,  too,  with  this  dif- 
ference, the  monopoly,  home,  being  tariffed,  while  the 
Pekin  government  here  has  all  the  profits.  This  salt 
is  sent  all  over  the  empire,  up  through  the  Grand 
Canal ;  and  hence,  these  huge  pyramids  of  salt  on 
the  shores  of  thePeiho,  ready  to  be  transported,  every- 
where, on  the  internal  waters — as  far  as  Canton,  if 
necessary.  Here,  then,  perhaps  better  than  else- 
where in  China,  in  these  innumerable  junks,  one  can 
see  the  vast  coasting,  and  internal  traffic  of  the  Chi- 
nese, in  comparison  with  which  their  foreign  com- 
merce is  but  a  drop  in  the  bucket. 

"  Home  !  Sweet  Home  !  "  Tien-tsin  was  that 
home  to  us  for  a  day,  on  this,  our  return  from  the 
great  interior.  The  American  flag  was  floating  here, 
on  a  coast  steamer  built  on  the  Clyde — the  "  Sze- 
chuen  " — with  a  Captain  (Patterson)  all  the  way  from 
the  State  of  Maine  ;  and,  on  this  Szechuen  we  forth- 
with made  our  lodgment  (the  only  "  hotel  "  left  by 
the  rains),  and  from  there  we  distributed  the  beds,  the 
pillows,  the  mosquito  nets,  the  books,  etc.,  that  the 
good  people  of  Tien-tsin  had  loaned  us  for  our  river 
voyage.  The  American  Consul  here  is  a  very  intelli- 
gent Scotchman,  with  a  Chinese  wife  and  Chinese 
children,  and  speaks  Chinese  as  well  as  he  speaks 
English ;  and  the  American  flag  was  pleasantly  float- 
ing over  his  house.  Mr.  Moore,  too,  the  agent  for 
the  American  boats  here,  was  kind  to  us,  and  his 
hospitality  was  welcomed  in  his  own  house,  where  a 
freshly-come  American  wife  from  Pennsylvania  added 


24:2  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

graces  to  that  home.  The  missionaries  called  upon 
us,  and  several  Englishmen,  and  the  officers  of  the 
British  gunboats  in  port  here — so  that,  on  the  decks 
and  in  the  cabins  of  the  Szechuen,  we  had  every 
reason  to  feel  "  at  home."  By  the  way,  these  lit- 
tle British  gunboats  seem  everywhere  on  the  coast. 
They  are  so  small  that  they  creep  into  very  small 
ports,  and  up  very  crooked  and  shallow  rivers,  as  is 
this  Peiho,  while  our  bigger  craft,  more  stately,  it  is 
true,  are  but  ornaments  for  Cheefoo,  Yokohama,  Nag- 
asaki, or  Hong  Kong. 

But  Tien-tsin  was  to  be  only  a  temporary  "  home," 
for  the  day  after  our  arrival  we  were  off  at  the  earli- 
est dawn,  rethreading  the  mazes  of  the  crookedest 
river  I  ever  saw,  not  even  excepting  the  Raritan 
(N.  J.).  We  had  laid  in  a  great  store  of  grapes — for 
this  is  the  grape  season,  and  Tien-tsin  supplies  Shang- 
hai, Amoy,  Hong  Kong,  and  all  the  coast,  with  grapes 
— while  we  had  plenty  of  ice ; — and  who  cannot  live 
on  ice  and  grapes  in  a  hot  land,  with  a  little  good 
bread  thrown  in  ?  But  there  is  no  stinting  on  board 
of  these  foreign  ships  on  the  China  coast.  All  live  like 
princes  on  the  very  fat  of  the  land.  The  "  fare  "  is 
enormous  in  price,  but  enormous  in  the  supply  of  eat- 
ables therefor.  As  to  the  steamers,  though,  I  cannot 
say  much  for  them — for,  how  they  do  screw,  and  roll, 
and  pitch,  and  twist,  and  turn  over,  and  turn  under, 
almost !  I  have  stood  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific 
without  much  fuss ;  but  these  shallow  waters  of  the 
Gulf  of  Pechili,  and  of  the  Yellow  Sea,  how  they  do 


RETURNING   SOUTHWARD.  243 

swell  and  tumble  under  you — for,  if  there  is  a  typhoon, 
or  a  storm,  hundreds  of  miles  off,  these  sympathetic 
shallows  twist  and  twirl  under  it,  as  does  a  fish  when 
there  is  not  water  enough  to  cover  him.  The  "  Toll- 
ing "  Manchu  (Captain  Steele)  has  had  famous  poetry 
made  upon  the  capacity  of  the  ship  to  roll,  and  there- 
by has  an  envious  preeminence  in  that  bad  way ;  but 
the  Manchu  rolls  no  more  than  the  Shantung  or  the 
Szechuen.  They  all  roll,  and  roll,  when  there  is  a 
breath  or  a  zephyr  to  roll  them,  and  will  forever  roll. 
"We  had  a  sort  of  a  race  from  Tien-tsin  to  Chefoo, 
and  from  Chefoo  to  Shanghai;  some  eight  hundred 
miles,  or  more,  in  all.  The  British  flag  is  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  American  flag  on  this  coast,  and  the  oppo- 
sition steamers  start  together,  on  the  same  day  and 
the  same  hour,  with  the  understanding,  however,  that 
they  are  not  to  consume  too  much  coal,  drive  too 
hard,  or  lower  freights  or  fares.  The  British  steamer 
"  Appin "  (screw),  however,  could  not  screw  as  fast 
as  the  American,  naturally,  which  left  her  ever  be- 
hind ;  and  hence,  in  order  to  avoid  this  disgrace,  the 
British  owners  ordered  more  coal,  more  fire,  the  more 
to  hurry  up  on  the  course.  The  American  steamer 
could  not  permit  the  honors  of  the  past  to  be  with- 
drawn, and  so  we  piled  on  more  coal,  and  had  more 
fire,  for  at  least  three  hundred  of  the  latter  part  of 
the  eight  hundred  miles,  and  beat,  of  course,  in  the 
arrival  at  Shanghai,  only  a  half  hour,  not  an  hour  at 
the  most.  The  race  then  became  very  exciting,  for, 
except  at  night,  we  were  always  in  sight. 


244:  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

We  stopped  at  Chefoo  only  two  or  three  hours  on 
our  return,  long  enough,  though,  to  see  the  American 
Consul,  Mr.  "Wilson,  and  to  have  long  talks  with 
other  Americans,  among  them  a  very  intelligent 
young  man  (Mr.  Holwell),  who  is  employed  in  the 
Chinese  custom-house,  which,  by  the  way,  is  run 
altogether  by  foreigners — an  Englishman  (Mr.  Hart), 
in  Pekin,  at  the  head,  and  Englishmen  and  Ameri- 
cans, and  Frenchmen,  and  Germans  are  scattered 
everywhere  through  the  treaty  ports,  to  collect  Chi- 
nese customs.  The  Chinese,  I  infer,  have  reached 
the  conclusion  that  they  themselves  were  not  sharp 
enough  to  match  smuggling  Yankees  and  John  Bulls  ; 
and  hence  they  employ  foreigners  to  collect  their 
duties  on  imports  and  exports,  who,  save  in,  and 
about  Hong  Kong,  have  now  stopped  all  smuggling, 
except  in  opium,  the  duty  on  which  is  so  high  as  to 
be  irresistibly  tempting.  Mr.  Holwell  is  one  of  the 
employes  at  Chefoo. 

This  place,  Chefoo,  in  the  province  of  Shantang, 
where  Confucius  came  from,  is  one  of  the  rich  prov- 
inces of  China.  Its  exports  for  foreign  use  are  mainly 
Pongee  silks,  which  cost  here,  from  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  six  dollars  for  nineteen  yards — silks,  by 
the  way,  admirable  for  our  Southern  and  Western 
climes,  and  for  umbrellas  and  sun-shades,  and  for 
travelling  dresses  in  the  North ; — and  straw  braid,  of 
which  our  straw  hats  and  straw  bonnets  are  made  in 
Connecticut  and  other  parts  of  New  England.  It  is 
cheap  enough  here,  but  with  the  thirty  per  cent,  duty 


RETURNING   SOUTHWARD.  245 

on  it  in  America,  and  with  freight  and  other  charges, 
it  becomes  dear  there,  and  thus  doubles  or  triples  the 
prices  of  our  hats  and  bonnets. 

I  am  grieved  to  say  that  I  have  not  seen,  since  I 
left  Shanghai,  the  American  flag  on  but  one  vessel, 
save  those  on  the  American  line  of  steamers,  no  more 
of  which  can  now  be  built  in  America — all,  alas, 
hereafter  to  be  built  on  the  Clyde,  or  elsewhere  in 
Europe !  Our  sailing  vessels  have  been  recently  driven 
off  the  Chinese  seas,  which,  originally,  under  Boston 
and  Salem  enterprise,  were  once  almost  OUT  seas. 
But  few  or  none  of  our  drills  now  clothe  the  millions 
of  the  Chinese  Empire.  Our  cotton  manufactures  of 
all  kinds  are  being  superseded  by  England  and  Ger- 
many. True,  mem  is  a  little  cheaper  in  Europe  than 
in  the  Northern  and  Western  parts  of  America  (not 
South) — but  machines,  not  men  make  drills,  and 
sheetings,  and  shirtings ;  and  they  make  them  so  cheap 
that  even  the  Chinese  and  Japanese,  where  man  is 
not  worth  half  as  much  as  horse,  or  mule,  or  donkey, 
cannot  compete  with  machine.  What  make  our  drills 
dearer  are  taxes  on  coal,  iron,  steel,  wood,  food  (fish 
and  potatoes,  the  great  food  of  the  Eastern  manufac- 
turers), for  machine  work  is  so  much  cheaper  every- 
where than  man,  that  man  nowhere  can  come  into 
competition  with  machine.  We  make  the  machine 
dearer  and  dearer,  and  hence  we  are  driven  off  the 
seas,  and,  alas,  off  the  land,  too !  But  for  the  Ameri- 
can lines  of  steamers  here,  now  run,  under  American 
captains,  by  Chinese  and  Malays,  mainly,  the  flowery 


246  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

flag  (the  name  the  Chinese  give  our  stars  and  stripes) 
would  hardly  be  seen  on  the  Chinese  and  Japanese 
seas.  These  live  independent  of  home,  free  from  the 
tax  oppressions  of  ftome,  and  spread  far  and  wide  the 
American  name  and  fame,  despite  the  ingratitude  of 
that  home.  Their  ship  stores  cost  not  half  ours  cost  at 
home.  Their  copper,  and  rigging,  and  machinery,  not 
half  of  ours.  The  Germans,  I  may  as  well  add  here, 
are  engrossing,  in  their  sailing  vessels,  much  of  the 
coasting  (treaty  port)  trade  of  China.  Their  mer- 
chants live  less  expensively.  Their  vessels  are  sailed 
cheaper,  and  they  have  smaller  craft  for  navigation 
in  the  smaller  ports  of  China. 

But,  this  is  out  of  place.  I  am  a  traveller,  not  a 
political  economist,  now — a  sketcher,  scribbler,  only, 
if  you  please,  not  an  essay  writer. 


LETTER   XXYII. 

THINGS    IN  SHANGHAI. 

Shanghai. — Its  Enterprises  and  Surroundings.— The  Hot  Sun  of  Shanghai — Turning 
White  Men  Yellow. — The  City  Government  of  Shanghai. — Eastern  Hours  for 
Breakfast  and  Dinner. — The  Great  Commerce  of  Shanghai. — Much  of  it  passing 
into  Chinese  Hands. — Tea  Trade. — Tea-Tasters. — Telegraphs  to,  and  from  Shang- 
hai.— Tea  Steamers  up  the  Tang-tze. — Foreign  Schemes  to  dodge  the  Fung 
Shney. — Hostility  to  Electricity. — The  Telegraphs  from  Shanghai  via  Nagasaki 
and  Vladivastock,  in  Kussia. 

SHANGHAI,  September  12,  1871. 

SHANGHAI  I  gave  a  bad  name  to — sick,  as  I  was, 
under  the  red-hot  flaming  suns  of  July.  Fresh  from 
the  North  now,  full  of  the  breezes  of  Mongolia,  with 
some  oxygen  in  my  veins,  not  all  hydrogen,  as  in 
July,  I  begin  to  think  the  place  habitable,  not  infer- 
nal (from  its  sun) ;  and  the  thickly-scattered  dead  Chi- 
nese, in  coffins,  above  ground,  all  about  the  drives 
of  Shanghai,  do  not  look  so  like  having  me  soon 
among  them  as  they  did  six  weeks  ago.  Nobody 
that  I  knew  in  July  is, dead  since  I  went  North ;  and 
hence,  I  reason,  death  is  not  the  inevitable  fate  of 
all  who  enter  Shanghai  in  July.  Upon  the  whole, 
the  place  is  a  model  place,  save  and  except  that  sun 
— that  red-hot,  fiery,  furious  sun — that  only  a  two- 
story  pith  hat,  a  double  umbrella,  and  goggles,  enable 
you  to  live  under,  with  white  shoes  on,  in  white  linen 


248  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

only,  and  no  shirt,  nearly  as  Japanese  and  as  Chinese 
as  possible,  free  from  that  European  discipline,  which 
has  established  the  unnatural  law  that  clothes  in  hot 
climates  are  indispensable.  By  the  way,  what  is  the 
matter  with  these  Eastern  suns  ?  There  is  not  a  hot 
place  in  the  United  States,  from  New  Orleans  to 
the  Geysers  in  California — though  the  thermometer 
makes  nothing  of  running  up  to  118 — where  a  straw 
hat,  under  that  sun,  is  not  endurable ;  while  here,  you 
would  soon  run  mad,  in  a  straw  hat,  under  the  same 
sun.  The  sun  is  the  Caucasian's  mortal  enemy  here, 
while  the  Mongolian  (has  he  a  thicker  pate  ?)  needs 
no  hat,  seldom  has  a  hat ;  nay,  on  the  contrary,  with 
shaven  head,  accepts  harmlessly  the  full  blaze  of  the 
noon-day  sun.  The  atmosphere  here  must  make 
these  Eastern  suns  so  much  hotter  than  our  "Western 
suns,  under  the  same  indications  of  the  thermome- 
ter. The  very  reflection  of  them,  sometimes,  gives 
the  Caucasian  the  heat-apoplexy,  and  almost  instant 
death.  I  was  constantly  threatened  with  it  in  July, 
though  never  venturing  out  of  doors  till  the  sun  was 
setting,  or,  before  it  was  much  risen  in  the  morning. 
This  very  reflection  of  the  sun,  however,  which  I 
have  seldom  faced,  has  almost  made  a  yellow  man 
of  me,  and  I  expect,  hereafter,  to  stand  high  with 
my  colored  brethren. 

But  to  redeem  Shanghai  from  my  July  injustice, 
I  must  say,  it  is  a  charming  little  Pedlington.  Every- 
body knows  everybody,  and  everybody  talks  about 
everybody.  The  people  are  all  "  tip-top,"  and  all  are 


THINGS  IN  SHANGHAI.  249 

aristocracy,  and  there  is  no  commonalty.  It  is  a 
community  of  clever  merchants,  with  the  prettiest 
wives  they  can  tempt  out  from  America,  and  Eng- 
land, and  Germany,  all  struggling  to  get  rich,  and 
all  fighting  for  Sycee  and  Mexican  dollars,  and  all 
happy  in  the  surety,  they  will  be  rich  some  day — then 
go  home,  and  be  buried  under  ground,  not  as  here, 
on  the  surface,  in  a  two-storied  coffin,  with  a  cord  of 
wood  or  more  in  it.  Shanghai,  I  think,  is  the  best 
governed  little  city  I  ever  saw.  The  whole  Cauca- 
sian race,  with  an  exceptional  French  "  flare-up  "  now 
and  then,  live  in  perfect  concord,  and  govern  the  city 
family,  not  as  politicians,  or  statesmen,  but  as  Abra- 
ham, Isaac,  and  Jacob  governed  their  flocks  of  sheep, 
and  of  men  and  women.  The  streets  are  as  nice 
and  neat  as  a  parlor.  The  police  drive  away,  or  ward 
off  nearly  all  crime.  The  charitable  institutions  are 
many.  The  English  Episcopal  Church  here  is  a  sort 
of  cathedral,  in  a  large,  open  ground,  which  must 
have  cost  thousands  and  thousands  of  Mexicans  to 
build.  There  are  few  handsomer  churches  in  New 
York  than  this  Episcopal  church  here.  The  mer- 
chants, though  thinking  only,  and  struggling  only,  for 
Sycee  and  the  Mexican,  nevertheless  live  like  princes. 
But  what  abominable  hours  they  keep — breakfast,  or 
tea,  or  coffee,  and  toast  and  eggs,  at  nine  A.  M.  ;  break- 
fast again  at  twelve,  or  one,  on  every  thing,  with  wines 
from  everywhere,  and  dinner  at  8  p.  M.  Then  all  go 
to  bed  after  that,  with  overflowing  stomachs,  well  pre- 
pared for  nightmare  that  night,  and  dyspepsia  or 
12 


250  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

fever  next  day.  They  have  no  evenings.  There  is 
no  social  visiting  at  night.  Their  exercise  and  air 
are  taken  as  the  sun  is  setting,  and  after  that  they 
eat,  and  eat,  and  drink,  and  drink — and  why  don't 
they  die  ?  But,  the  fact  is,  this  hot  climate  is  an  ex- 
ception to  ours.  The  more  you  eat  here,  the  better 
you  seem  to  be  off.  As  hog  and  hominy  are  indis- 
pensable for  our  Southern  negro,  even  in  July,  so 
beef  and  mutton,  if  not  pork,  seem  indispensable 
here.  The  drinking  that  would  kill  us  Americans  is 
here  done  with  apparent  impunity.  The  water  itself 
not  being  fit  to  drink,  everybody  drinks  soda  water, 
or  Bass's  beer,  or  London  porter,  or  claret,  or  sherry, 
or  port,  or  brandy,  and  none  seem  to  kill.  London 
porter,  half  death  in  our  bilious  climate,  in  July,  is 
here,  in  July,  the  staff  of  life.  I  think  I  owe  to  a 
bottle  of  it  per  day  (which  I  could  not  drink  at 
home)  the  capacity  to  exist  here,  in  July. 

The  commerce  of  Shanghai  reminds  one  of  New 
York  in  its  better  (shipping)  days.  The  river  is  full 
of  ships  from  all  parts  of  the  world  but  ours.  Now 
and  then,  there  is  the  American  flag,  or  an  Ameri- 
can sailor  (A.  A.  Low  &  Co.  keep  the  flag  alive),  but 
few  and  far  between  are  our  ships.  England  is  here 
in  all  her  ocean  glory.  Shanghai  is  to  this  land, 
with  its  great  river  (the  Yang-tze),  what  our  New 
Orleans  was  to  the  Mississippi,  in  its  palmier  days, 
and  before  its  trade  was  diverted  by  railroad.  The 
commerce  of  the  world  rushes  here  to  gather  the  teas 
and  silks  of  China,  and  the  exports  and  imports  are 


THINGS  IN  SHANGHAI  251 

enormous  in  value,  more  especially  to  and  from  Eng- 
land. Hence,  the  operations  of  exchange  in  banks 
are  very  large,  and  the  mere  commissions  upon  trans- 
actions make  the  fortunes  of  many.  Trade,  however, 
here,  as  everywhere  in  China,  is  rushing  from  the 
foreigners  more  and  more  into  the  hands  of  the  Chi- 
nese. They  buy  all  the  tea  from  the  farmer ;  they 
pick  it,  and  sort  ifc,  and  sift  it,  prepare  it  for,  and 
bring  it  to,  market ;  and  some  of  them  now  are  think- 
ing of  establishing  their  own  agencies  in  London, 
Liverpool,  and  New  York.  They  sell  now  to  for- 
eigners by  "musters" — that  is,  by  sample  —  and 
every  tea  mercantile  establishment  here  has  its  tea- 
taster  who  tries  the  tea,  and  buys  it  from  these  "  mus- 
ters." ISTo  merchants  are  keener,  or  sharper,  not 
even  the  Yankees,  than  these  Chinese  merchants. 
The  "  tea-tasters  "  here  are  great  institutions.  They 
arrange  twenty  or  thirty  tea-cups  in  rows,  with  cov- 
ers over  them ;  then  pour  on  water  of  a  given  heat ; 
then  take  a  minute-glass,  and,  measuring  the  time, 
keep  it  just  so  long  under  cover,  when  they  taste 
and  smell,  and  then  make  record  of  the  quality  and 
value  of  the  tea.  And  now,  don't  let  every  old  lady 
in  America  turn  up  her  nose  at  tea,  when  I  tell  her 
that,  in  the  packing  of  the  teas  in  the  tea-chests,  the 
naked-footed  coolie  (Chinese  workie)  jumps  on  the  tea, 
and  tramples  it  into  the  chest  with  his  feet  and  toes, 
just  as  sugar  is  trampled  in  elsewhere,  or  as  bread 
is  made,  in  hot  weather,  in  a  baker-shop,  in  Chicago, 
or  New  York,  or  Boston,  Tea  and  sugar  are  good, 


252  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

nevertheless,  despite  the  dirty  coolie  in  China,  and 
the  dirtier  African  in  Cuba — are  they  not  ?  Teas, 
too,  I  have  forgotten  to  state,  are  heated,  toasted, 
and  baked  in  firing-pans,  the  better  to  stand  the 
long  voyages;  and  hence,  the  tea  we  drink  at  home 
is  not  the  uncured,  the  undoctored  tea  the  Chinese 
drink  here.  The  green  teas  are  especially  doctored,  as 
well  as  the  scented  teas ;  but,  as  I  never  drink  them, 
I  won't  hurt  the  feelings  of  those  who  do. 

Shanghai  is  now,  by  telegraph,  within  the  reach 
of  "  all  creation ; "  and  hence,  this  telegraph  is  mak- 
ing some  mischief  in  the  tea-trade,  as  it  does,  on  the 
start,  with  all  the  trades  elsewhere.  The^costly  tele- 
graph dispatches  must  fly  often  here,  to  and  from 
London  and  New  York.  Reuter  tells  us  the  great 
news  items,  by  telegraph,  in  joint-stock  telegrams; 
but  the  prices  of  teas  and  silks  in  the  great  markets 
of  the  world  are  secrets  to  the  trade,  which  each  house 
itself  pays  for.  The  British,  this  year,  have  run 
through  here  some  five  or  six  steamers,  from  Hankow, 
the  headquarters  of  the  tea -trade  on  the  River  Yang- 
tze, to  Liverpool  and  London,  and  they  have  made 
the  voyage  in  fifty  or  sixty  days,  through  the  Suez 
canal.  These  movements  threaten  a  revolution  in 
the  movement  of  teas.  You  have  doubtless  noticed 
how  the  Pacific  Mail  steamers  to  San  Francisco  have 
been  crowded  with  teas  this  summer,  while  extra 
ships  have  been  put  on,  and  they  have  not  been  able 
to  carry  half  away  in  the  season  when  wanted. 

The  telegraph  has  recently  been  branching  off 


THINGS  IN  SHANGHAI.  253 

here  in  all  directions,  save  that  of  China,  where  over- 
land electricity  is  at  a  discount,  in  consequence,  as  I 
have  shown  you  before,  of  its  hostility  to  the  "  Fung 
Shuey,"  the  wind  and  water  superstition  of  "  the  hea- 
then Chinee."  There  is  a  scheme  on  hand  among 
some  of  the  pro-Chinamen,  which  I  think  will,  sooner 
or  later,  dispose  of  this  superstition ;  and  that  is,  to 
employ  Chinese  leading  men  on  the  routes  to  build 
the  telegraphs,  and  then  to  keep  them  in  order,  pay- 
ing them,  for  the  guarantee  and  protection,  more 
than  it  is  worth.  "  The  devil  "  (Fung  Shuey),  it  is 
thus  thought,  will  be  "  whipped  around  the  stump." 
The  god  of  silver  (there  are  no  gold  gods  here — we 
never  see  gold  as  money)  will  thus  get  around  the 
god  of  wind  and  water.  Shanghai,  New  York,  San 
Francisco,  Oregon,  and  Vancouver's  Island  are  now 
telegraphically  linked,  under  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic 
Oceans.  The  Danish  Company  (it  may  be  Russian, 
under  cover),  that  stretched  the  wires  by  sea  from 
TEIong  Kong  to  Shanghai,  has  now  not  only  con- 
nected Nagasaki  (Japan),  but  run  a  line  from  Naga- 
saki, by  sea,  up  north  to  Yladivastock,  a  seaport  on 
the  Pacific  (Russian)  coast,  whence  already,  six  thou- 
sands miles  nearly,  is  a  wire  to  St.  Petersburg,  and 
thence  all  over  Europe.  Thus,  Shanghai,  Hong 
Kong,  and  Nagasaki  have  now  two  ways  of  reaching 
Europe — one  by  the  Indian  and  Red  Seas,  the  other 
overland  through  Russia — two  strings  to  the  bow. 
The  indispensable  link  now  is,  though  yet  wanting, 
the  link  from  San  Francisco,  by  sea,  over  to  Asia, 


254:  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

then  through  Russia,  so  that  in  case  of  European 
wars  there  will  be  two  strings  to  the  American  bow. 
Russia  and  the  United  States  together  must  make 
that  link ;  for  no  private  company,  for  years,  would 
it  pay,  in  consequence  of  the  sparseness  of  popula- 
tion. Two  great  friendly  people  like  the  Americans 
and  Russians,  with  their  two  great  institutions  (the 
two  D.'s),  cannot  afford  thus  to  live  apart,  or  to  think 
and  to  breathe  only  through  Europe. 


LETTER  XXYIII. 

FROM  TEE  ENGLISH  COLONY  OF  HONG-  KONG. 

How  Screw-Steamers  rolL— Cabins,  Hot,  Hotter,  Hottest.— Chow  Chow  excellent.— 
Sleep  in  a  Stew  Prison.— The  Great  English  (P.  &  O.)  and  French  Lines  of  Steam- 
ers in  the  East. — Hong  Kong. — Typhoons  here. — The  City  the  Refuge  of  the 
Eeftise  Chinese. — Curious  Intermixture  of  Population. — The  Coolie  Emigration 
here. — The  Dialects  of  China. — Pidgen  English. — Chinese  Kitchens  and  Cooks, 
etc.,  etc. 

HONG  KONG,  September  20,  1871. 

THIS  place  is  some  fifteen  thousand  miles,  or  more, 
from  New  York — the  way  I  am  going  home,  via  Eu- 
rope ;  but,  nevertheless,  it  is  very  European.  I  was 
"  steamed "  into  the  city  at  night-fall,  just  as  the 
innumerable  gas-jets  were  illuminating  the  houses  on 
the  side-hill  streets,  and  the  effect  was  very  beautiful. 
The  eyes  long  used,  or  only  used,  to  oil  or  tallow-dips 
become  electrified  by  gas-jets;  and  hence  Hong 
Kong,  as  I  entered  into  it  by  gas-light,  seemed  like 
fairy-land.  The  French  steamer  Phase,  of  the  quon- 
dam Messagerie  fmperiale,  now  only  "maritime"  (a 
name  that  is  likely  to  stand,  as  it  may  be  both  Cagsar- 
ian  and  Republican),  was  the  steamer  in  which  (some 
eight  hundred  and  seventy  miles)  I  came  down 
south,  to  this,  the  latitude  of  Havana — (fare,  $60) — 
in  which  the  chow  chow  (that  is  the  only  word  Euro- 
peans use  here  for  feeding)  was  excellent,  the  sea- 


256  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

rnanship  good  enough,  but  the  sleeping,  in  the  hot, 
sub-aqueous  cabin,  almost  infernal.  The  steamer — 
long,  lean,  lank — was  lawless  when  the  wind  blew, 
and  rolled  so  that  the  port-holes  of  our  stewing  pris- 
ons were  always  shut,  unless  one  wanted  to  be  in 
a  salt-water  bath  all  the  night.  Think,  in  the  lati- 
tude of  Florida  and  Havana,  of  being  thus  shut  up, 
and  in  a  boat  whose  iron  sides  had  been  so  heated  by 
the  Shanghai  suns,  that  only  an  arctic  winter  can  well 
cool  them  off!  The  fact  is,  while  England  and  France 
may  be,  nay,  doubtless  are,  great  on  "  the  hulls  "  of 
steamers,  they  know  nothing,  this  way,  at  least,  of 
interior  accommodation.  The  "  Phase  "  was  superb 
above  water  to  live  in ;  but  uninhabitable  down  un- 
der water,  in  the  sleeping  cages  in  which  we  were 
cribbed.  The  success  of  our  American  steamers  on 
the  Yang-tze,  on  the  Peiho  River,  the  Yellow  Sea, 
and  the  Canton  River,  has  arisen  mainly  from  the 
fact  that  our  carpenters  know  how  to  build  cabins — 
a  lesson  yet  to  be  learned  in  England  and  France,  so 
it  seems  to  me.  There  are  two  powerful  lines  of 
steamers  running  from  China  and  Japan,  through 
the  Red  Sea,  to  Europe — the  English  line  known  as 
the  P.  &  O.  (the  Peninsular  and  Oriental),  and  the 
French  line,  the  Messagerie.  They  run  once  a  fort- 
night each,  and  so  give  the  whole  East  a  weekly  mail 
between  them  both.  Both  are  largely  paid  by  their 
respective  Governments — the  French,  however,  pay 
the  most,  who,  though  they  have  the  best  steamers 
here,  because  the  newest  and  latest  styles,  have  the 


FROM  THE  ENGLISH  COLONY  OF  HONG  KONG.  257 

least  commerce.  Nevertheless,  in  silks  they  are  well 
freighted,  for  their  silks  go  up  the  Adriatic  into  Ger- 
many, as  well  as  to  France  and  Italy.  The  French 
gave  us  French  chow  chow,  with  light  wines  and  beer ; 
and  John  Bull,  roast-beef,  beef-steak,  plum-pudding, 
etc.,  etc.,  but  no  wine  nor  beer.  The  P.  &  O.  line  is 
subsidized  by  the  English  Government,  $2,500,000 
per  annum. 

As  for  this  British  Colony  of  Hong  Kong,  all 
under  the  British  Government — with  Sepoys  and 
Sikhs  here  for  soldiers  as  well  as  Britons — it  is  diffi- 
cult, in  a  small  space,  to  sketch  for  you  a  comprehen- 
sible idea.  It  is  a  little  island,  built  on  the  side  of  a 
great  hill,  which  runs  up  to  a  peak,  and  at  the  bot- 
tom of  that  big  hill,  and  on  the  sides  and  fissures  of  it, 
are  some  of  the  prettiest  architectural  displays  you 
see  anywhere,  except  in  the  palatial  streets  of  Italy. 
You  look  out  of  one  window,  and  you  look  on  the 
harbor'  and  the  sea ;  and  hence,  at  times,  when  the 
wind  is  from  that  way,  you  feel  the  fresh  breezes  of  the 
sea.  You  look  out  of  another  window,  and  you  look 
up  the  sides  of  the  mountain,  with  houses  overtop- 
ping yours,  the  peak  overtopping  all.  The  streets  are 
as  good  as  money  can  make  them.  Sewers  are  in  all 
quarters,  and  water  flows  down  in  pipes  from  the  hill 
sides,  into  your  closets  and  bath-rooms ;  and  that 
great  scarcity  of  the  East,  and  therefore  that  greatest 
of  blessings,  runs  into  your  rooms  abundantly,  fresh, 
pure,  healthy — so  that,  if  you  have  been  famishing 
for  water  as  I  have  been,  now  over  two  months  in 


258  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

China,  you  drink  and  you  drink  here,  and  you  bathe 
and  you  bathe,  for  the  mere  fun  of  it.  Hong  Kong, 
you  thus  see,  is  a  beautiful  little  place,  with  some 
five  thousand  Europeans  in  it,  including  the  garrison, 
with  twenty  Chinamen,  or  more,  to  one  European. 
The  Government  buildings  here  are  handsome,  and 
the  public  grounds  are  handsomer.  But  my  descrip- 
tion may  be  rosy — for  I  have  been  so  long  wandering 
in  nasty  Chinese  places,  that  this  place  not  only 
seems  to  be  a  home,  but  a  sort  of  heaven.  The  hot 
season  is  nearly  over.  The  monsoon  is  changing,  and 
brings  down  an  occasional  cool  breeze  from  the  north. 
The  society  is  attractive  and  hospitable ;  but,  perhaps, 
what  is  worth  more  than  all  to  make  a  man's  eyes  see 
every  thing  in  rose-color,  is — I  am  well.  Some  of 
the  dwellings  of  merchants  here  are  truly  palatial. 
I  am  a  guest  in  a  house  originally  built  by  Dent  & 
Co.,  which  cost  here  over  a  quarter  million  of  dollars, 
where  labor  is  so  cheap — now,  however,  cut  up,  after 
the  failure  of  that  great  house,  into  three  establish- 
ments ;  but  those  left  are  all  palatial.  When  money 
was  made  here,  without  rivalries — without  Chinese 
or  other  serious  competition — men  could  afford  to 
build  such  palaces  to  live  in ;  but  that  day  is  over 
now,  never  to  return  again. 

Fortunately  for  me  as  a  voyager,  thus  far  I  have 
dodged  typhoons,  as  well  as  escaped  earthquakes  in 
Japan ;  but  I  see  here  now,  as  I  saw  in  Hiogo,  Japan, 
the  terrible  power  and  devastation  of  these  typhoons, 
of  which  all  in  the  East,  but  more  especially  the  na- 


FROM  THE  ENGLISH  COLONY  OF  HONG  KONG.  259 

tives,  live  in  affright,  if  not  horror.  About  two 
weeks  gone  by,  a  typhoon  knocked  up  here,  the  Pra- 
ya,  or  Bund,  or  Quay,  as  we  would  call  it,  and  spread 
devastation  and  death  far  and  wide  in  the  harbor. 
The  crippled  ships  now  in,  and  others  coming  in, 
show  the  typhoon's  power  at  sea,  while  many  have 
gone  down — junks  certainly — never  to  be  heard  of 
again.  Steamers,  however,  escape  them  better  than 
any  other  craft.  The  barometer  forewarns  the  navi- 
gator, hours  ahead,  of  their  approach,  and  while  a 
ship  can  only  go  as  the  caprice  of  the  wind  directs, 
the  steamer  chooses  her  own  place  to  dodge  the  ty- 
phoon at  sea,  or  the  harbor  to  anchor  in.  Huge 
granite  stones,  well  laid  on  the  Praya  or  Quay  here, 
were  tonr  up  from  their  places.  Ships  at  anchor 
were  drifted  about  as  if  playthings.  The  loss  of  life 
was  small  among  the  Europeans  and  Americans,  but 
great  among  the  Chinese,  who  have  no  newspapers 
to  record  in'detail  their  calamities  ;  hence,  we  never 
know  any  thing  of  the  extent  of  their  sufferings  un- 
der these  typhoons,  or  under  the  floods. 

There  is  a  great  outcry  here,  just  now,  against 
crime  and  criminals,  and  the  Chinese,  and  the  police. 
All  the  rogues  and  rascals  of  China  that  can  elope 
from  home  run  here  to  hide,  or  for  protection 
against  their  own  mandarins.  Hence  this  city  is 
full  of  Chinese  burglars,  and  thieves,  and  murderers, 
even.  I  see  to-day  tw,o  or  three  hundred  of  these 
criminals  chained  together  to  wheelbarrows,  at  work, 
wheeling  dirt  to  fill  up  the  excavations  created  on 


260  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

the  Quay  by  the  typhoon.  They  were  all  under  the 
command  of  negroes,  mainly  from  Jamaica,  who,  with 
whip  and  musket  in  hand,  keep  order,  and  make  the 
criminals  work.  The  fact  is,  Hong  Kong  is  a  great 
"  sore  "  in  the  Chinese  system.  European  law  does 
not  fit  Asiatic  courts ;  the  trial  by  jury  is  an  unnatu- 
ral graft  here,  and  imprisonment  for  crime  is  often 
a  blessing  to  a  half-starved  Chinaman  rather  than  a 
curse.  These  burglars,  some  of  them,  are  so  expert 
that  they  grease  themselves  all  over,  in  oil,  and  then 
enter  naked  the  warehouses,  so  that,  if  caught,  they 
can  slide  away — there  being  nothing  to  hold  on  to 
except  the  pig-tail,  which  is  carefully  rolled  up.  In 
walking  the  streets  here,  one  sees  the  motleyest  of  all 
populations.  There,  is  the  American,  the  Englishman, 
the  Scotchman,  the  Irishman,  the  Frenchman,  -the 
German ;  and  there,  are  Ah  Sin,  Hang  Wang,  Hi 
Gang,  Pe  Tow,  Tai  Ling,  Sing  Shun, — with  Parsees, 
Sikhs,  and  Sepoys  from  India,  negroes  from  the  West 
Indies,  Malays,  Manillamen,  bastard  Portuguese  and 
Spanish,  etc.  There,  is  the  Chinaman,  with  his  pig- 
tail and  his  fan,  and  the  Parsee,  with  his  long,  black 
paper  hat,  or  the  Sikh,  with  his  turban,  or  the  Sepoy, 
in  his  cap  ;  and  there,  comes  the  American,  or  Eng- 
lish stove-pipe  hat — a  curiosity  here,  attracting  at- 
tention, where  all  wear  pith,  or  straw,  or  felt.  The 
"  stove-pipe  "  now  looks  as  ugly,  to  my  eye,  as  the 
"  rough-and-ready  "  in  America,  or  any  other  like  ug- 
ly contrivance  for  the  head.  There  is  no  universal  law 
here — no  fashion  for  hats,  it  seems.  Every  one  wears 


FROM  THE  ENGLISH  COLONY  OF  HONG  KONG.  261 

what  that  one  fancies.  Linen  is  the  great  article  of 
men's  dress  in  these  latitudes,  and  most  of  them  ap- 
pear all  the  time  in  white.  The  apparel  is  not  costly 
here — pantaloons,  $2  and  $2  50 ;  coats,  $3  ;  vests, 
$1  50,  etc.  But  Hong  Kong,  you  will  remember,  is 
a  free  port — no  tariffs,  no  customs,  nor  custom-house 
officers — and  it  is  the  great  smuggling  entrepot,  too, 
for  the  whole  of  this  part  of  the  East,  more  especially 
in  opium,  on  which,  out  of  Hong  Kong,  there  is  a 
very  high  duty,  but  not  often  paid  by  the  Chinese 
about  here. 

This  city,  with  Macao,  some  thirty  miles  off,  is  the 
headquarters  of  the  coolie  emigration  to  America. 
The  Northern  and 'Central  Chinese  do  not  emigrate 
by  sea ;  but  the  Southern  Chinamen  long  ago  began 
to  go  off  to  Singapore,  Cochin  China,  or  elsewhere 
in  the  "West ;  and  hence  emigration  for  him  to 
America  was  not  so  serious  a  matter.  From  Shang- 
hai and  the  Northern  Yang-tze  River,  there  is  no 
Emigration.  No  Chinaman  there  can  be  induced  to 
emigrate  to  the  United  States.  No  Pekinese  ever 
turn  up  in  the  United  States,  save  those  that  once 
came  over  with  Mr.  Burlingame.  The  fact  is,  the 
dialects  of  the  Chinese  Empire  are  so  conflicting,  that 
one  province  can  scarcely  understand  another ;  and 
hence  there  is  little  or  no  social  communication  be- 
tween the  North  and  the  South,  or  the  East  and  the 
West.  The  Cantones^  cannot  understand  a  word,  or 
scarcely  a  word,  of  Pekinese,  and  vice  versa.  There 
is  a  mandarin  language,  which  all  officials  under- 


262  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

staiid,  and,  more  or  less,  all  the  intelligent  men  of 
China ;  but,  nevertheless,  China  is  thus  more  cut  up 
than  Great  Britain  was  thirty  years  ago,  with  its 
Welsh,  its  Gaelic,  its  Celtic,  its  Yorkshire  and  Lan- 
cashire dialects,  which,  though  spoken  then  in  the 
heart  of  the  island  of  Great  Britain,  outsiders  could 
scarcely  understand.  The  common  mode  of  commu- 
nication here  between  the  foreigner  and  the  China- 
man is,  in  "  Pidgen  "  (not  Pigeon)  English — the  word 
"  Pidgen  "  being  the  Chinese  comprehension  of  the 
English  word  "  Business."  This  Pidgen  English  is 
now  the  universal  dialect  between  foreigners  and  the 
Chinese.  All  get  along  with  it  very  well,  though  it 
is  nearly  as  incomprehensible  to  my  unaccustomed 
ear  as  the  Chinese  itself.  The  "  Compradore,"  that 
is,  the  Chinese  head  business  man  of  all  foreign 
houses,  who  stands  between  the  foreign  merchant 
and  the  Chinese  merchant  in  all  matters  of  trade, 
always  speaks  Pidgen  English.  These  Compradores, 
by  the  way,  are  great  characters  in  China,  and  make 
much  money  outside  of  their  regular  business,  and  not 
exactly  in  its  line.  One  of  them,  whom  I  saw  in  Shang- 
hai, was  a  mandarin,  and  on  extraordinary  occasions 
he  would  turn  up  in  his  robes.  The  Chinese  (Can- 
tonese) servants,  all  over  China,  make  the  best  ser- 
vants in  the  world.  They  do  the  work  of  women  as 
well  as  of  men.  They  are  most  excellent  cooks — the 
best  of  waiters — but  it  require^  several  of  them  to  do 
what  one  American  or  English  servant  does  in  a 
house.  Coolie  (drudge  man  about  house)  will  not 


FROM  THE  ENGLISH  COLONY  OF  HONG  KONG.  263 

wait.  "  It  is  not  his  '  pidgen.' 5:  Waiter  will  not 
do  coolie  work,  none  of  it,  not  in  the  least.  Cook 
only  cooks,  but  cooks  as  well  as  a  Frenchman,  and 
that  is  saying  nmch  in  his  favor.  The  butler,  or 
head  "  boy  "  of  a  house,  who  is  the  universal  genius 
of  the  house,  and  who  has  the  capacity  to  do  almost 
any  thing,  if  he  will — who  acts  as  translator  and 
supervisor  of  all  the  establishment,  and  whose  "  pid- 
gen "  it  is  to  see  and  to  keep  every  thing  in  order,  is 
paid  only  from  $7  to  $12  per  month,"  providing  his 
own  chow  chow  (food),  and  in  all  other  respects  tak- 
ing care  of  himself.  These  servants  often  have  lit- 
tle "  larn  pidgens  "  under  them — that  is,  boys  learn- 
ing to  speak  u  pidgen  English,"  and  to  do  what  we 
call  "  chores."  A  Chinese  kitchen,  from  which  such 
good  things  are  turned  out  for  the  table,  is  a  wonder 
in  its  way.  There  is  nothing  in  it  but  a  cooking- 
stove  or  two,  not  longer  than  our  American  water- 
pail,  with  a  few  stew-pans,  and  many  chop-sticks, 
from  which  few  things  come  the  many  courses  for  the 
table,  all  well-cooked  and  garnished — nay,  even  the 
best  of  beefsteaks,  so  difficult  to  have  cooked  well  at 
home.  The  more  I  go  over  the  world  the  more  I  am 
convinced  that  Americans  and  Englishmen  are  far  be- 
hind the  rest  of  creation  in  preparing  their  food  to  be 
eaten.  Our  "  civilization  "  in  this  is  over  a  hundred 
years  behind  the  age ;  and  in  this  respect  the  Chi- 
nese are  far  our  superiors.  That  devil's  invention  of 
ours,  the  kitchen  range,  ought  to  be  kicked  down 
where  it  came  from,  the  lower  regions — an  invention 


264  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

which,  in  summer,  roasts  us  out  of  our  houses,  and 
in  winter  consumes  as  much  coal  in  a  day  as  a  Chi- 
naman would  need  in  a  month,  or  a  Frenchman  in  a 
week.  Some  rich  man  in  America,  some  coming 
Peter  Cooper,  in  lieu  of  teaching  us  how  to  draw, 
would  do  better  to  found  a  college  to  teach  us  how 
to  boil  potatoes,  cook  beafsteaks,  roast  mutton,  and 
bake  bread,  for  such  a  Peter  Cooper  would  be  the 
very  greatest  of  American  human  benefactors.  In 
lieu  of  giving  $100,000  to  Tale,  or  Harvard,  or 
Princeton,  to  found  a  professorship  of  mineralogy,  or 
geology,  or  other  ologies,  how  much  wiser  would  it 
be  to  give  the  $100,000  to  establish  a  professorship 
for  beafsteaks,  or  corn  bread,  roast  beef,  hog  and 
hominy,  etc.  But — I  am  thinking  of  "  home  " — not 
in  Hong  Kong,  now,  I  see.  I  am  off  to  Canton. 


LETTER   XXIX. 

THINGS   IN    CANTON. 

What  Canton  is. — Its  People,  Streets,  Sewers,  etc.,  etc. — The  Temples  of  Canton. — 
Sacred  Hogs,  Confucius  and  the  Stalls. — Caging  Students  ambitious  to  be  Man- 
darins.— Do  Chinamen  eat  Cats,  Dogs,  and  Bats  ? — The  Manufactories  of  Can- 
ton.— The  Silk  Gauzes. — An  Improvised  Breakfast  on  a  Pagoda. — No  Beasts  of 
Burthen  in  the  City.— All  Coolie  Work.— A  Sabbath  in  Canton.— Boat  Lifo 
there. — Ducks  and  their  Owners. — Gates  and  Police. — No  Going  Out  Nights. — 
No  Courting. — No  Clubs. 

CANTON,  September  24,  1871. 

WELL,  I  have  never,  never  before  seen  exactly 
such  a  funny  place  as  this  is.  If  I  had  dropped  into 
China  this  way  first,  I  should  have  pronounced  Can- 
ton to  be  a  nasty,  dirty  hole,  with  streets  so  narrow 
that  one  could  not  move  or  breathe  in  them ;  but 
now,  in  contrast,  I  pronounce  it  to  be  New  York 
(Fifth  Avenue)  and  the  surroundings,  Boston,  Phila- 
pelphia,  Baltimore,  Edinburgh — any  thing,  or  any 
where,  but  Washington,  which,  if  I  am  killed  for  it, 
I  must  say,  in  spring,  and  winter,  and  summer,  looks 
very  like  Pekin,  in  its  dirt,  and  dust,  and  mud.  Can- 
ton is  the  Paris,  as  well  as  the  Paradise  of  China. 
The  streets  are  all  paved  (think  of  that  for  China !),  in- 
stead of  being  full  of  mud  holes,  that  you  have  to  sound 
with  a  pole  to  see  if  it  is  safe  to  try  to  go  over  them. 
There  are  sewers  under  a  good  part  of  the  great  city ; 


266  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

and  hence  the  smells  are  not  frightful  here  as  else- 
where. True,  the  streets  are  so  narrow  that  no  car- 
riage can  enter  them,  and  two  sedan  chairs  pass  each 
other  with  difficulty,  and  the  houses  often  overtop 
each  other,  across  the  streets,  in  order  to  keep  out  the 
sun ;  but  this  makes  cooler  streets  in  hot  climates, 
though  with  less  air.  I  often  think,  however,  China- 
men have  not  our  breathing  apparatus,  and  do  not 
need  our  air.  Their  lungs  live  on  less ;  and  where 
we  should  die,  in  the  close  streets  of  Canton,  they 
seem  to  flourish,  like  the  fungi,  in  the  shade.  There 
are  eight  hundred  thousand  people  living  in  these 
streets,  or  in  the  boats  on  the  river;  and  hence  you 
can  imagine  the  crowds  that  often  must  be  in  these 
narrow  places.  Whole  strings  of  people,  en  queue, 
often  form  in  the  streets,  to  wait  their  chance  to  get 
along — the  coolie  with  his  two  water  tanks  on  a  pole ; 
the  marketman  with  his  greens  and  his  onions  ;  the 
merchant  with  his  silks  and  satins,  etc.,  etc.  All  classes 
wait  with  commendable  patience,  en  queue,  some- 
times five  hundred  feet  long,  for  the  crowds  to  go  by ; 
and  there  is  no  pushing,  no  shoving,  though  an 
amount  of  bellowing  that  re-echoes  from  the  hills 
about  Canton  as  if  a  storm  was  roaring  below. 

Our  party,  in  five  sedan  chairs,  fifteen  coolies  to 
carry  them,  and  the  guide  in  advance,  began  the  ex- 
ploration of  Canton.  Didn't  we  make  a  "  muss  "  in 
the  streets !  Didn't  our  train  block  up  the  narrow 
ways,  stop  trade  and  commerce,  bother  the  market- 
men,  and  the  merchantmen,  and  all  sorts  of  men ! 


THINGS  IN  CANTON.  267 

And  yet  the  Cantonese  were  patient  to  be  kept  ten 
or  fifteen  minutes,  till  our  train  could  get  by  them. 
We  filled  up  the  Canton  streets  as  a  soldiers'  procession 
or  a  funeral  procession  fills  up  Broadway ;  but  there 
was  no  police  to  keep  order,  and  we  passed  on  only 
by  the  courtesy  of  the  people. 

"We  first  "  did  "  the  temples ;  but  I  am  weary  to 
death  of  "  doing  "  temples,  and  you  would  be  wearier 
if  I  "  re-did  "  them  upon  paper.  Three,  however, 
are  worth  a  brief  notice — HONAM,  No.  1 — and  that, 
only  because  there  is  an  artificial  fish-pond  on  the 
grounds,  and  an  eternal  clatter  of  Buddhist  priests 
praying  all  the  time,  and  knocking  their  heads  and 
noses  on  the  floor,  with  an  occasional  priest  burned 
up .  now  and  then,  when  dead,  and  a  holy  hog  kept 
sacred  to  die  of  fat ;  the  TEMPLE  OF  500  GODS,  ]STo.  2, 
worth  seeing  only  for  the  great  number  of  gilt  gods, 
and  the  odd-looking  faces  they  have ;  and  the  TEMPLE 
OF  CONFUCIUS,  or  Hall  of  Confucius,  JSTo.  3,  well  worth 
seeing,  because  every  thing  created  and  inspired  by, 
or  for,  Confucius  is  all  there  is  left  of  soul  in  China 
now.  The  Examination  Hall — that  is,  the  stalls  and 
halls  fitted  up.  for  the  examination  of  the  thousands 
of  young  men  studying  Confucius  and  Mencius,  and 
the  other  sages  of  China,  and  thus  aspiring  to  be  man- 
darins— is  also  well  worth  a  study.  There  are  here 
about  nine  thousand  stalls,  in  immense  corridors — 
stalls  about  as  big  as  horse  mangers — where  students 
are  put,  with  only  a  pen,  a  paint  brush  rather,  and  pa- 
per, to  write  out  themes  given  them,  and  kept  there 


268  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

a  day  or  two,  with  little  or  nothing  to  eat.  Their 
essays,  written  on  certain  themes,  are  examined  and 
commented  upon  by  high  mandarins,  and  the  best 
scholars  pass  as  fit  for  the  Imperial  offices,  with  tempt- 
ing fields  of  promotion  before  them,  if  they  win  the 
prizes  by  well- written  essays  on  the  themes  thus  given. 
These  nine  thousand  stalls  are  often  all  filled  by  the 
aspirants,  who,  when  there  thus  shut  up,  go  hard  at 
work,  without  the  least  means  of  being  aided  by  books 
or  persons,  and  do  the  best  they  can.  These  examina- 
tions have  been  the  life  of  the  empire  for  hundreds  and 
hundreds  of  years,  and  if  corruption  or  favoritism  do 
not  control  them,  they  may  save  China  from  foreign 
domination  some  years  longer. 

But  more  interesting,  if  not  important,  to  me, 
was  the  great  question, "  Do  Chinamen  really  eat  rats, 
cats,  and  dogs  ?  "  Our  guide  took  us  to  the  markets 
to  see.  Sure  enough,  among  beef  and  mutton,  were 
dogs  slung  up  by  the  hind  legs  on  pegs ;  and  cats, 
and  rats,  too  !  "Dogs,"  says  the  guide,  in  "pidgen 
English  "  "  are  very  good ! "  The  rich  eat  dogs  as  well 
as  the  poor.  Dog  meat  thus  is  !No.  1 — first  chop — 
while  cat  meat  is  No.  2,  and  rats,  only  for  the  poor. 
Mixed  up  with  rice,  and  eaten  with  chop-sticks,  the 
mess  is  said  to  be  very  good.  I  did  not  taste,  nor  try 
it, — though,  who  knows,  when  we  were  eating  some 
of  the  nice,  rich  soup  served  us,  that  a  rat  may  not 
have  flavored  it  a  little  ?  Thus  the  fact  was  estab- 
lished in  my  mind  that  Chinamen  do  eat  dogs,  cats, 
and  rats.  We  knew  they  ate  almost  every  thing  else. 


TIIINGS  IN  CANTON.  269 

Ducks'  legs  were  for  sale  in  the  market — not  ducks 
as  a  whole,  but  the  legs,  apart.  Immense  quantities 
of  meat  are  sold,  to  flavor  the  rice  dish ;  and  the 
chop-sticks  go  from  the  rice  to  the  grease,  and  from 
the  grease  to  the  rice,  with  a  rapidity  that  astounds 
us,  who  try  to  make  rice  stick  on  these  chop-sticks. 

From  temples  to  rats — what  varied  themes  a  trav- 
eller has  to  scribble  of !  From  rats  to  workshops, 
now  we  went.  The  beautiful  Canton  gauzes  we  see, 
so  aerial  in  a  hot  clime — the  silks,  the  crapes,  the 
shawls,  the  fringes — all  are  woven  by  the  poorest 
people,  in  the  dirtiest  holes,  and  by  the  ugliest  looms. 
It  was  almost  impossible  to  wriggle  in,  among  these 
looms,  so  as  to  understand  well  their  work  ;  but  the 
principle  of  these  looms  is  very  like  that  in  the  looms 
of  our  New  England  great-grandmothers.  The  shut- 
tle is  the  same,  and  the  wool  and  the  warp  are  the 
same  in  principle — the  power  applied  a  little  differ- 
ently. There,  for  almost  nothing,  work  and  toil 
these  weavers,  weaving  their  lives  out  to  give  the 
world  luxuries  they  never  themselves  enjoy.  The 
lacquer  shops,  where  the  pretty  Canton  tables  and 
screens  are  made,  were  also  visited — the  carpenter 
shops,  the  china  shops,  etc.,  etc.  And  Canton  is  a 
large  manufacturing  city,  living  on  manufactured 
work,  more  especially,  though,  on  its  chinaware  and 
silks.  There  are  great  shops  here,  with  rich  mer- 
chants over  them,  who  do  a  big  business  with  the 
whole  .world.  The  Sevres  ware,  the  ware  of  Dresden 
and  of  Bohemia,  and  much  of  the  ware  of  England, 


270  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

are  now  far  superior  to  Chinese  work ;  but  all  was 
learned  from  the  Chinese,  and  the  world  even  yet 
comes  here  to  buy  the  original  things.  Here  is  the 
land  of  the  fire-crackers,  and  here  one  eternal  "  4th 
of  July"  is  kept  up,  in  one  everlasting  "snap," 
"  snap."  I  should  never  weary  of  shopping  in  Can- 
ton— (Paris  in  its  palmy  days  was  not  fuller  of  pretty 
shops) — if  I  only  had  Sycee  enough  to  buy  a  little 
of  every  thing.  One  could  exhaust  a  little  fortune 
in  fans  and  ivory  work.  The  jewelry,  some  of  it,  es- 
pecially the  fretted  work,  is  not  to  be  laughed  at. 
One's  eyes,  especially  if  the  eyes  be  woman  eyes, 
water  over  the  pretty  bracelet  and  ear-ring  work, 
carved  from  crane's  beaks,  and  set  well  in  fretted 
gold.  But  Europe  has  caught  up  with  China,  and 
Geneva  now  does  this  work  better,  and  Yienna  too, 
where  fans  are  painted  to  be  prettier  than  in  China. 
The  Chinese  manufacturer  stands  still  where  he 
was  hundreds  of  years  gone  by,  while  the  European 
and  American  go  ahead  and  ahead,  and  never  stop 
"  Progressing." 

But  one  must  eat,  alas,  as  well  as  see;  and  to 
show  you  how  things  are  done  in  Canton,  let  me  add 
here,  we  "  breakfasted  " — that  is,  had  "  tiffin,"  second 
breakfast — three  or  four  miles  from  "  home,"  on  the 
heights  of  a  five-storied  pagoda,  where  the  city  was 
at  our  feet,  and  the  country,  if  graveyards  can  be  a 
country,  behind  us.  Kwan- Yin-Shan  is  the  Chinese 
name  of  our  breakfast  pagoda.  What  I  call  atten- 
tion to,  is  the  skill  with  which  Chinamen  will  im 


THINGS  IN  CANTON.  271 

provise  you  a  meal  anywhere.  In  the  baskets  of 
coolies,  strung  on  poles  over  their  backs,  and  through 
the  narrowest  streets,  were  conveyed  to  the  tip-top 
story  of  this  pagoda,  the  finest  of  crockery,  the  choic- 
est of  meats  and  wines  —  nothing  broken,  and  all 
•  served  up  with  skill  and  care.  Thus  you  breakfast 
or  dine  almost  anywhere,  for  your  meals  will  follow 
you.  You  can  sup  on  the  river,  and  live  luxuriantly 
in  the  house-boat,  or  breakfast,  as  we  did,  overlook- 
ing Canton,  and  enjoy  the  breezes  of  the  country, 
unobstructed  by  houses  or  buildings. 

Nothing  more  impresses  a  man  in  all  China  than 
the  power  of  men  to  do  business  without  beasts  of 
burthen  or  vehicles  of  any  kind.  A  coolie  does  not 
cost  half  so  much  to  keep  as  a  horse,  or  an  ass,  and 
will  live  and  thrive  on  what  a  horse  would  not  touch. 
There  is  not  a  cart  in  all  this  great  city !  There  is 
not  a  road  or  a  street  for  horses !  Every  thing  goes 
en  men's  shoulders,  or  backs,  or  heads.  The  huge 
block  of  granite  is  taken  up,  and  taken  off,  by  six, 
or  eight,  or  ten,  or  more,  coolies,  with  poles.  The 
hogshead  from  abroad  goes  on  the  shoulders  of  four 
coolies — that  is,  upon  their  bamboo  poles.  All  the 
loading  and  unloading  of  junks  is  done  by  coolies 
with  their  poles.  All  the  commerce  and  all  the  trade 
of  these  tens  of  thousands  of  people  are  done  on 
poles,  on  men's  backs.  Hence,  these  coolies  become 
wonderfully  muscular.  Their  shoulders  must  be  as 
tough  as  cast-iron,  and  the  muscles  of  their  legs  as 
firm  as  a  boxer's  arms.  There  are  no  springless 


272  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

carts  down  here,  as  in  Pekin — no  wheelbarrows,  as  in 
Shanghai — only  the  sedan,  for  the  transportation  of 
passengers,  and  a  most  luxurious  vehicle  it  is  to  be 
carried  about  in. 

It  is  the  Sabbath,  and  I  go  to  hear  Archdeacon 
Grey  preach  and  pray  for  the  royal  family  of  England, 
in  the  very  pretty  little  Episcopal  Church,  built  in  the 
foreign  settlement  of  Shamien.  As  all  foreigners 
here  shut  up  shop  on  Sunday,  the  Chinaman,  espe- 
cially the  servant,  begins  to  comprehend  our  one 
Sunday,  in  lieu  of  the  three  hundred  and  sixty-five 
the  Chinese  have,  or  have  not,  every  day  in  the  year. 
Archdeacon  Grey  preached  only  to  some  forty  of  us 
(there  are  now  not  over  one  hundred  foreigners  in  all 
Canton,  so  much  has  Hong  Kong  killed  off  the  for- 
eign trade  of  the  city),  but  Archdeacon  Grey  has 
been  in  China  now  some  twenty-five  years,  and  has 
caught  up,  or  been  infected  by,  the  rhetoric  of  China. 
I  could  not  understand  half  what  he  said— nothing, 
when  he«was  eloquent,  and  "eloquence,"  you  know, 
is  often  the  death  of  all  sense.  The  Shamien  settle- 
ment of  Canton  is  the  beautiful  spot  of  the  city. 
The  houses  are  almost  all  palaces,  the  walks  and  gar- 
dens as  useful  and  as  pretty  as  taste  and  climate  can 
make  them.  Shamien  was  built  up  by  the  English 
and  French  Governments  from  a  mud-flat  island,  and 
the  filling  of  it  up  cost  some  $325,000.  All  the 
merchants  left  in  Canton  are  now  there,  except  the 
two  American  houses  of  Smith,  Archer  &  Co.  and  of 
Kussell  &  Co.,  who  have  built  upon  the  old  original 


THINGS  IN   CANTON.  273 

Factory  site,  associated  now  with  so  much  of  Chinese 
Canton  history. 

The  boat-life  of  Canton  is  "  very  peculiar."  Thou- 
sands and  thousands  live  on  the  river.  "What  they 
do  for  a  living  I  could  not  well  find  out,  for  there  is 
not  enough  boating  or  ferrying  "  to  pay,"  nor  enough 
fish  in  the  water  to  feed  them.  True,  the  ground- 
rent  and  the  house-hire  are  nothing — and  the  wharf- 
rats,  and  cats,  and  dogs  may  supply  the  meat — but 
who  will  supply  the  rice  ?  Nevertheless,  these  thou- 
sands live,  and  seem  to  thrive,  and  certainly  look 
happy.  Canton,  however,  is  the  happiest-looking 
city  I  have  seen  in  China,  and  everywhere,  the  peo- 
ple seem  ready  for  fun.  Children  are  born  in  the 
boats,  and  live  all  their  lives  in  the  boats — and  the 
mother  of  them  often  rows,  or  sculls,  with  a  child 
strapped  on  her  back.  Upon  some  of  these  children 
are  tied  bamboo  floats,  so  that,  if  the  darling  tumbles 
overboard,  it  is  easily  fished  up  and  in.  On  these 
boats,  too,  they  raise  ducks  and  chickens ;  the  ducks 
are  sent  out  in  the  morning  to  feed  in  the  marshes 
round  Canton,  and,  just  before  sunset,  the  man  who 
has  charge  of  them  blows  a  shrill  whistle,  and  the 
ducks  come  hurrying  from  all  directions  by  the  hun- 
dreds. It  is  wonderful  to  see  them  separate,  each 
duck  going  for  its  own  boat,  and  the  owner  counts 
them  as  they  enter  (calls  the  roll);  the  last  one  is 
always  taken  up  and  beaten  for  being  the  last,  and 
the  next  night  they  tell  me,  that  that  last  duck  is 
invariably  the  first.  Then  there  are  grand  boat 
13 


274  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

restaurants,  where  parties  go,  as  to  Dehnonico's,  to 
feast  free  from  the  dead  air  of  the  narrow  streets,  and 
enjoying  the  free  air  of  the  river.     These  restaurant 
boats  are  gorgeously  fitted  up  with  lanterns  and  with 
gilded  adornments  of  many  kinds,  and  they  give  the 
visitor  the  best  the  market   affords,  not  excepting 
even  the  dogs.      I  think  if  I  had  to  live  in  Can- 
ton, I  should  prefer  the  free  air  of  the  river  to  the 
close  air  of  the  streets.     At  night  the  river  is  gayer 
than  the  city,  for  the  gates  of  the  city — gates  by 
the  score  within  the  great  wall-gates  of  the  city — 
obstruct  all  night  locomotion-,  while  the  river  is  open 
and  free.     I  loved  to^revel  in  a  house-boat  at  night, 
breathe  the  free  air,  hear  the  squeaking  guitar  of  the 
Chinaman,  see  his  fire-crackers,  peep  into  his  restau- 
rants, hear  his  babies  squall,  and  the  mothers  and 
fathers  snore.     If  you  do  not  admire  my  taste  for 
music,  reader,  you  will  enjoy  the  variety  I  had,  will 
you  not  ?     In  the  streets  of  Canton  you  will  see, 
every  afternoon  just  before  sunset,  groups  of  China- 
men, seated  on  the  highest  points  they  can  find,  in 
order  to  catch  the  evening  breeze,  all  of  them  with 
twigs  in  their  hands,  and  pet  birds  perched  thereon. 
You  wonder  why  the  birds  do  not  fly  away,  but,  ou  ex- 
amining, you  find  they  have  a  piece  of  cord  tied  round 
the  leg   and  then  fastened  to  the  twig,    allowing 
the  birds  to  fly  only  three  or  four  feet.     Canton  city 
is  divided,  by  its  streets,  into  hundreds  of  compart- 
ments at  night,  and  in,  or  over  each  compartment  is  a 
gate,  closed  at  night.     For  order  and  peace  every 
little  community  within  these  gates  is  responsible  to 


THINGS  IN  CANTON.  275 

the  authorities,  for  there  is  no  local  police.  The  sys- 
tem is  somewhat  like  the  old  English  system  of  the 
Chiltern  Hundreds,  and  which  it  was  proposed  to 
introduce  into  the  Ku-Klux  Bill  for  the  benefit  of 
the  South.  It  works  in  Canton  well,  or  ill  (?) — shuts 
up  the  shops  at  dark,  sends  people  to  bed  early,  pre- 
paring them  thus  to  rise  early  in  the  morning,  stops 
all  night  gadding,  all  theatre  going,  all  soirees  and 
evening  parties,  all  courting  and  billing  and  cooing, 
brings  home  husband  early  at  night,  and  keeps  him 
from  then  straying  off.  There  is  a  river  police,  which 
cruises  about  the  river  at  night,  and  bangs  into  you, 
if  you  do  not  sail  straight. 

I  might  scribble  pages  and  pages  upon  these  droll, 
these  extraordinary  Cantonese ;  but  I  must  stop  to  tell 
you  how  I  got  up  here,  and  how  go  I  back — in  Ameri- 
can river-steamers,  with  American  captains — boats  re- 
minding one  of  the  North  River  navigation — fare  $5 
for  ninety  miles — but  fifty  cents  for  a  lower  deck 
Chinaman,  and  one  hundred  cents  for  an  upper 
decker.  The  Bocca  Tigris — that  is,  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  where  the  Chinese  once  had  forts  which 
they  thought  would  bite  like  the  mouth  of  a  tiger — 
has  not  a  soldier  there  now,  and  the  British,  French, 
and  Americans,  in  years  gone  by,  knocked  the  forti- 
fications all  to  pieces.  "Whampoa,  its  pagodas,  the 
shipping  there  (not  much  now)  the  cane-fields,  the 
lychee-nut  tree,  the  orange  groves,  the  very  many 
other  (to  me)  unknown  strange  fruits,  would  be  themes 
to  fill  letters,  if  I  were  writing  a  book— but  I  am  on 
the  wing  now,  and  so  must  say  "  adieu  "  for  the  nonce. 


LETTEE  XXX. 

THOUGHTS  ON  THE  CHINA  SEAS. 

The  Imitative  Powers  of  the  Chinese.— Their  Love  of  Money. — Population  of  China 
over-estimated. — Pisciculture  in  Canton. — Chinese  Dialects. — "War  Talk. —Super- 
stitions of  the  Ignorant.— Singapore. — The  Malay  Divers. — Foreign  Commerce. 
— The  Census. — The  Jungle. — Agriculture,  etc.,  etc. 

OFF  COCHIN  CHINA  AND  SIAM,  AND  ON  THE  ) 
CHINA  SEA,  October  4,  1871.          ) 

AFLOAT  as  I  now  am,  I  have  leisure  to  recall  some 
of  my  Chinese  and  Japanese  reflections,  and  I  am 
availing  myself  of  it,  in  the  British  steamer  Orissa, 
one  of  the  P.  &  O.'s,  as  they  call  the  line  of  the 
Peninsular  and  Oriental  Steamship  Company,  which 
has  now  some  sixty  steamers  afloat  here,  and  on  the 
Mediterranean — (fare,  by  the  way,  from  Hong  Kong 
to  Brindisi,  in  Italy,  the  mail  line,  now  about  $450). 

The  Chinese  impress  the  traveller  deeply  by  their 
great  imitative  powers,  powers  of  endurance,  and 
wonderful  industry.  ]STo  people  work  harder,  not 
even  the  universal  Yankee  nation.  Their  love  of 
money  is  beyond  what  any  other  people  seem  to  have, 
and  they  are  willing  to  work  for  it.  Yery  few  nations 
could  stand  up  in  competition  with  them,  if  they  had 
an  American  education  and  American  training.  As 
mechanics  they  are  capable  of  any  thing.  Then,  they 


THOUGHTS  ON  THE  CHINA  SEAS.  277 

can  live  on  little  or  nothing — on  vegetables  almost 
altogether ; — and  their  clothes  cost  little  or  nothing. 
Nevertheless,  England,  Germany,  and  America  large- 
ly find  them  in  these  clothes — for,  as  I  have  written 
before,  the  spinning-jenny  does  not  eat  at  all,  or  need 
clothes,  and  the  Chinaman  must  have  something  of 
both.  Luxury  seems  to  be  forbidden  in  China.  Even 
the  rich  do  not  indulge  in  it,  and  it  is  hard  to  tell,  by 
any  outward  sign,  the  rich,  from  the  poor  man,  either 
in  his  exterior  or  in  his  dwelling. 

But  the  Japanese  are  by  far  the  most  interesting 
people.  They  have  not  the  solidity  or  stability  of  the 
Chinese,  but  they  are  a  far  more  interesting  people, 
and  learn  faster  and  more  cheerfully  than  the  Chi- 
nese, of  all  that  is  new,  and  of  all  that  progress,  the 
great  outside  world  is  making.  Both  their  agricul- 
ture and  manufactures  seem  to  me  quite  superior  to 
the  Chinese.  China  is  not  near  as  well  cultivated  as 
I  expected  to  see  it,  while  in  Japan,  in  most  parts, 
agriculture  is  carried  to  a  very  high  degree  of  perfec- 
tion. There  must  be  more  people  to  the  square  mile 
in  Japan  than  in  China,  and  the  farms  must  supply 
more  food  for  the  population.  The  population  of 
China  must  be  over-estimated  by  100,000,000.  There 
cannot  be  400,000,000  of  people  there ;  and  I  doubt 
if  there  are  300,000,000.  •  Pekin  has  no  two  millions 
of  people  in  it,  as  some  say — nay,  not  one  million — 
while  Canton  must  be  much  the  most  populous  place. 
But,  in  many  parts  of  China,  the  struggle  for  life,  or 
to  live,  seems  greater  than  in  Japan.  I  omitted  to 


2f8  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

state  to  you  from  Canton,  as  a  specimen  of  life  or 
living,  how  fresh  fish  were  artificially  raised  in  the 
artificial  ponds,  in,  and  about  Canton,  and  how  the 
surplus  are  sent  to  Hong  Kong,  by  steamer,  in  huge 
fish-tubs,  filled  with  fish  and  fresh  water,  and  aerated 
by  coolies  as  the  steamer  goes ;  and  how,  when  these 
fish  reach  Hong  Kong,  they  are  "  dumped  out "  into 
fresh-water  boats,  waiting  for  them,  and  thus  kept  for 
market — mainly  for  the  Chinese,  though,  for  Euro- 
peans do  not  relish  them. 

The  Chinese  labor  under  immense  difficulties  in 
their  progress  and  civilization,  from  their  language 
alone,  to  say  nothing  of  their  pride,  vanity,  and  self- 
confidence,  which  teach  them,  yet,  that  no  other 
people  know  half  as  much  as  they  do.  Their  dia- 
lects prevent  any  real  unity  of  the  great  empire,  for 
the  Northern  people  cannot  understand  the  Southern 
people,  and  vice  versa.  "What  a  Pekinese  says  is  unin- 
telligible to  the  Cantonese ;  and  one  province  near  by 
often,  only  with  great  difficulty,  can  understand  the 
people  of  another.  "Where  such  diversities  of  tongues 
exist,  it  is  the  mandarin  of  the  province  that  gov- 
erns, rather  than  Pekin,  the  head  of  the  empire ;  and 
these  diversities  are  not  likely  to  be  done  away  for 
years  and  years,  save  through  the  agencies  of  rail- 
roads and  the  telegraph,  which  the  mandarins  are 
now  disinclined  to  have. 

All  over  China,  among  the  Europeans  and  Amer- 
icans, "  war,"  imminent  war,  with  China  seems  to 
be  pending,  judging  only  by  what  I  hear  them  say. 


THOUGHTS  ON  THE  CHINA  SEAS.       279 

I  could  not  see  any  real  causes,  however,  for  this  ap- 
prehension, and  the  diplomats  in  Pekin  do  not  believe 
in  it ;  but  war  may  come,  and  come  very  unexpect- 
edly, perhaps,  if  tile  superstitions  of  the  Chinese  are 
played  upon  by  the  more  intelligent  Chinamen — 
the  third-  and  fourth-rate  mandarins — as  they  have 
been  played  upon  this  summer  in  many  parts  of 
China.  Thousands  of  the  ignorant  Chinese  have 
been  taught  to  believe  that  foreigners  carry  "  pills  " 
about  them  to  poison  the  wells,  and  that  the  mis- 
sionaries, especially  the  Roman  Catholic  missionaries, 
are  engaged  in  kidnapping  Chinese  children.  The 
Pekin  government  knows  better  than  all  this,  and 
discourages  all  such  talk ;  but  the  lower  mandarins 
of  the  provinces  often  keep  up  these  fancies  and 
falsehoods,  in  order  the  better  to  have  control  of  the 
ignorant  people.  Nevertheless,  in  China  there  is  al- 
most universal  reading  and  writing,  and  that  degree 
of  intelligence  which  comes  from  these  two  "  B-'s," 
and  which,  I  think  I  have  written  you  before,  I  do 
not  deem  to  be  education. 

But  I  am  now  steaming  far  away  from  China  and 
Japan,  and  going  among  another  people — to  India, 
to  see  the  original  Indians,  and  how  their  British 
masters  govern  them.  Here  afloat,  then,  I  will  but 
sketch  of  what  I  am  now  passing  and  seeing.  To 
my  right  is  Cochin  China  and  Siam,  the  land  of  ele- 
phants, and  tigers,  and  leopards,  etc. ;  and  on  my  left, 
are  the  Philippine  Islands  of  Spain,  and  Borneo,  Brit- 
ish and  Dutch,  native,  in  part,  and  the  rich  Dutch 


280  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'  RUN. 

island  of  Java — a  gold  mine  to  the  King  of  the 
Netherlands,  as  Cuba  was  to  Spain  before  the  rebel- 
lion. The  poor  Portuguese  who,  after  the  Arabs,  first 
discovered  the  East,  seem  now  to  have  little  or  noth- 
ing left  here,  except  Macao  and  Goa,  while  John 
Bull  has  gobbled  up  all,  except  Java  and  Sumatra 
(Dutch),  and  the  Philippine  Islands  (Spanish). 

SINGAPORE,  October  7. 

We  are  just  entering  the  British  city  of  Singa- 
pore, 1,437  miles  from  Hong  Kong,  having  made  the 
voyage  from  a  Friday  to  a  Saturday  the  week  after. 
As  we  enter,  our  first  novelty  is  the  Malay  divers, 
who,  in  little  boats,  are  swarming  about  our  steamer, 
and  diving  after  every  sixpence  or  penny  we  throw 
overboard — sure  to  get  them,  too,  before  they  reach 
bottom.  They  are  the  most  wonderful  swimmers 
and  divers  I  ever  saw,  and  one  cannot  help  emptying 
one's  pockets  to  see  them  dive  after  the  coin.  These 
swarms  of  swimmers  seem  to  fill  the  water  all  around 
us,  and  their  cries  and  clamors  and  intent  earnest- 
ness in  watching  the  passengers  as  they  throw  over 
their  coins,  can  hardly  be  described,  so  furious  and 
wild  are  they  in  their  screams  and  cries. 

Singapore  is  only  a  degree  and  a  half  from  the 
equator,  and  hence  we  have  here  all  the  tropical 
productions — with  fruits  whose  very  names  are  un- 
known to  us  in  America.  The  vegetation  is  all  new 
to  me,  for  I  have  never  before  been  so  near  the  equa- 
tor; and  hence  I  feel  all  the  enthusiasm,  and  am 


THOUGHTS  ON  THE  CHINA  SEAS.  281 

inspired  with  all  that  wonder  new-comers  in  the 
tropics  feel.  The  place  itself  is  beautiful ;  and  the 
hotel  where  I  am  now,  "  the  Europe,"  immense  in  its 
extension  (but  only  two  stories  high),  with  all  "  the 
entertainments  "  a  traveller  could  desire.  Singapore 
is  the  seat  of  government  lor  "the  Straits  Settle- 
ment," which  includes  Singapore,  Penang,  and  Ma- 
lacca, with  its  Governor  and  Chief-Justice,  a  British 
garrison,  and  all  the  other  appurtenances  of  a  British 
colony.  There  is  here  a  beautiful  Episcopal  church, 
a  Catholic  church  also,  and  the  Presbyterians  have  a 
place  of  worship  near  by.  As  a  free  port,  it  is  the 
entrepot  of  merchandise  from  all  quarters  hereabout 
— of  spices,  of  pepper,  of  nutmegs,  of  sago,  of  rattan, 
tapioca,  etc.,  etc.  There  are  two  American  agents 
here,  who  do  an  immense  business  for  the  United 
States,  almost  as  much  as  all  the  English  merchants 
do,  taken  altogether.  Nearly  all  our  rattans  come 
from  Singapore. 

The  "  Straits  Settlement "  is  a  British  colony  here, 
of  which  Singapore  is  the  capital.  The  census  re- 
ports 306,776  inhabitants,  but  from  all  parts  of  Eu- 
rope only  1,592,  about  one  in  200  of  the  whole. 
These  are : 

Malays 147,684 

Chinese 114,130 

Klings 20,125 

All  other  Easterners. 23,245 

305,184 

The  three  settlements  are  Singapore,  Penang,  and 
Malacca.  The  country  all  about  is  jungle — wilder- 


282  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

ness — full  of  tigers,  and  leopards,  and  other  wild 
beasts ;  and  we  were  told  we  should  see  them  from 
the  shores,  swimming  to  our  ship,  but  none  have 
been  so  bold.  This  jungle  is  cleared  by  the  Chinese, 
only  by  the  Chinese — the  Malays  and  Klings  refus- 
ing to  be  much  else  than  boatmen,  fishermen,  sailors, 
huntsmen,  etc.  The  Chinese  are,  in  the  main,  the 
only  farmers  ;  and  the  emigration  here  from  China, 
encouraged  by  the  British  Government,  is  very 
great.  Anon  they  "  will  make  the  wilderness  blos- 
som like  the  rose,"  while  the  Malays  would  never 
clear  the  land. 

The  cultivation  in,  and  around  Singapore  is  beau- 
tiful. All  the  equatorial  productions  abound  in  one 
eternal  summer,  with  ever-constant  rains.  The  sea 
breezes,  however,  temper  all  here,  and  make  it  a  very 
habitable  place.  I  visited  the  rich  gardens  of  a 
Chinaman — Whampoa's,  I  think — in  which,  even 
more  than  in  China,  with  greater  opportunities  in 
these  tropical  latitudes,  were  the  peculiar  tastes  of  the 
Chinese  gardeners  displayed  ;  but  their  gardens,  of 
which  this  is  one  of  the  best,  if  not  the  very  best, 
are  not  to  be  compared  with  the  landscape  gardening 
of  England  and  of  the  United  States.  Here  we  saw 
the  pineapple,  the  cocoanut,  bread-fruit,  the  orange, 
mango,  jackfruit,  mangosteen,  custard-apple,  coffee, 
chocolate,  nutmeg,  clove,  cassia,  etc.  One  boast  of 
"Whampoa,  in  his  garden,  is  his  hogs  in  their  sties ; 
and  I  must  admit,  none  bigger  or  better  are  ever 
raised  in  any  part  of  the  United  States. 


LETTER  XXXI. 

FROM  CEYLON  AND  THE  BAY  OF  BENGAL. 

England,  Continuous  England. — The  Steamer  Congregation  in  Ceylon. — A  Gfrand  Ori- 
ental Hotel. — Buddhism  born1  here. — Sapphires,  Bubies,  and  Pearls. — The  Cinga- 
lese great  Cheats. — A  Monkey  Story. — Curious  Boats  and  Boatmen  in  Galle. — 
Men  here  mistaken  for  Women,  and  vice  versa. — Madras,  and  Thirigs  there.-^- 
The  Latin  Eaces  here  crowded  off  by  the  Anglo-Saxon. — Englishmen  here  patron- 
ize the  Shastra  and  the  Veda,  as  well  as  the  Bible. — Their  Kace  kept  distinct. — A 
Handful  of  Englishmen  governing  a  World. — Juggling  in  Madras. — Golcondaand 
Juggernaut. — Cyclones  and  the  Church  at  Sea. — Hymns,  etc. 

ISLE  OF  CEYLON,  POINT  DE  GALLE      ) 
(THE  COCK'S  SPUR),   'October  15,  1871.  ) 

MOKE  British  dominion  !  The  everlasting  Eng- 
lish flag !  From  Hong  Kong  to  this  Ceylon  is  three 
thousand  and  thirty-one  miles,  and  yet,  almost  all 
the  way,  it  is  "  England,"  "  England,"  "  England  !  " 
The  Dutch  were  cleared  out  of  Malacca,  and  of  this 
rich  island  of  Ceylon,  and  here  we  are,  now,  in  an 
extended  England !  Far  beyond  us  here,  and  yet  en 
route  to  England,  are  Australia  and  New  Zealand — 
Melbourne  four  thousand  six  hundred  and  seventy 
miles  off,  and  Tasmania  and  New  Zealand  further 
still !  Here,  once  a  month,  five  great  British  mail 
steamers  meet — one  from  China,  another  from  Aus- 
tralia, another  yet  from  Suez  and  England,  another 
from  Bombay,  and  one  more  from  Calcutta.  The 
Point  de  Galle,  every  two  weeks,  is  a  busy  place, 


284:  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

when  four  steamers  meet ;  but  once  a  month,  when 
Australia  and  New  Zealand  come  in,  it  becomes  a 
veritable  watering-place,  where  crowds  meet  from  all 
parts  of  the  earth. 

I  am  at  the  Oriental  Hotel,  landed  this  morning, 
and  just  fresh  from  the  English  church,  where,  in- 
cluding the  British  military,  were  some  five  hundred 
people,  or  more — the  men  all,  or  almost  all,  in  linen, 
and  the  ladies  in  the  showiest  robes  of  summer. 
There  is  a  Catholic  church  here,  a  Presbyterian  also  ; 
but  the  island  is  the  great  fount  of  Buddhism,  from 
whence  it  was  mainly  propagated  into  Japan  and  Chi- 
na. The  Oriental  Hotel  now — which  would  do 
credit  to  Newport  or  Long  Branch — is,  on  its  porti- 
cos, a  grand  bazaar,  Sunday  though  it  is.  Rubies, 
and  sapphires,  and  pearls,  glitter  before  our  eyes,  and 
chains  and  bracelets  of  tortoise  work,  too — with 
Ceylon  laces  of  the  Maltese  style,  quite  tempting  to 
ladies'  eyes.  The  island  of  Ceylon  is  the  headquar- 
ters of  the  pearl  fishery,  and  rubies  and  sapphires 
abound  in  its  mountains.  When  we  remember,  now, 
what  the  poets  say  of  its  spices  (the  odor  of  which 
they  would  cheat  us  into  the  belief  we  could  snuff 
a  hundred  miles  off),  and  of  its  oranges,  and  cin- 
namons, and  lemons,  and  cocoas,  and  palms,  and 
coffee,  we  see  what  a  rich  island  it  is — what  a  jewel 
in  the  crown  of  England  !  But  these  rubies,  these 
sapphires,  these  pearls,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  buy 
here — for  the  Ceylon  shopmen  and  hawkers  are  such 
abominable  liars  and  cheats,  that  it  is  next  to  the  im- 


FROM  CEYLON  AND  THE  BAY  OF  BENGAL.   285 

possible  to  trade  with  them.  They  start  with  demand- 
ing twenty  pounds  sterling  for  a  ruby  or  pearl  ring, 
and  they  may  not  refuse  a  rupee  for  it  (fifty  cents),  if 
you  venture  to  offer  it  to  them.  Ruby  rings  of  glass 
and  brass  are  made  in  Birmingham  to  sell  here ;  and 
they  are  so  mixed  up  with  the  real  sapphires  and  rubies, 
that  only  a  jeweller  by  trade  can  tell  one  from  the 
other.  And  how  these  hawkers  and  shopmen  on  the 
porticos  of  the  great  hotel  persecute  you !  £To  matter 
with  whom  you  are  talking,  or  what  you  are  doing, 
they  thrust  their  shell-work,  and  rubies,  and  sapphires, 
and  laces,  into  your  very  eyes,  and  pertinaciously  in- 
sist upon  your  making  some  bid  to  buy.  One  fellow 
so  tormented  me  with  a  monkey,  for  which  he  want- 
ed "  only  ten  rupees,"  that,  to  get  rid  of  him,  and  to 
keep  his  monkey  out  of  my  eyes,  I  offered  him  a  sin- 
gle rupee,  whereupon  he  jumped  at  the  offer,  and  I 
had  a  monkey  on  my  hands,  ten  thousand  miles  from 
Jhome !  The  steamers  do  not  take  monkeys,  even  as 
Malay  steerage  passengers,  and  so  I  had  to  give  him 
away,  doubtless  to  be  sold  again.  Birds  of  the  love- 
liest hues  and  the  sweetest  plumage  were  for  sale, 
also  ;  and  leopard  skins,  and  tiger  skins,  and  almost 
every  other  tropical  thing,  on  the  grand  bazaar.  "We 
had  some  young  Siamese  passengers,  on  their  way 
from  Siam  to  be  educated  in  England,  with  more 
money  than  brains,  who  bought  a  little  of  most  every 
thing,  until  their  hands  became  as  thickly  covered 
with  rings  as  if  the  rings  were  a  shield. 

Every  new  country  we  go  to  seems  to  have  its  pe- 


286  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

culiarities  in  boats,  and  carriages,  or  other  modes  of 
conveyances.  Galle  is  an  open  port,  but  feebly  pro- 
tected from  the  winds,  and  upon  its  rocky  sides  the 
surf  furiously  beats.  The  boatmen  have  here,  ar- 
ranged for  this  sea  and  this  surf,  long  canoes,  like  our 
log  dugouts,  which  they  steady  in  the  seas  with  a 
heavy  outrigger,  hanging  over  and  into  the  water, 
beyond  the  reach  of  their  oars.  If  the  gale  is  heavy 
in  full  sail,  they  put  out  a  man  or  two  to  sit  on  the 
outrigger,  and  as  the  breeze  demands  one  man,  or 
two,  they  call  it  a  one-man,  or  a  two-man  breeze. 
These  canoes  ride  over  and  through  the  surf  with 
very  little  difficulty. 

Another  peculiarity  of  this  island  is,  that  the 
men  wear  shell-combs  in  their  hair,  and  the  women 
do  not,  while  the  dress  of  both  is  so  much  alike,  that, 
in  consequence  of  the  combs,  the  traveller  is  ever 
mistaking  the  man  for  the  woman,  and  the  woman 
for  the  man.  But  the  race,  be  it  man  or  woman, 
seems  bright.  Their  climate  needs  but-  little  food, 
save  what  grows  on  the  cocoa,  the  bread,  or  the  or- 
ange tree,  little  or  no  clothes  ;  and  the  consequence 
is,  that  the  main  work  done  is  to  be  done  by  coolies 
from  India,  or  Chinamen  from  China.  The  British 
Government  here  have  regiments  of  native  Ceylon 
"  rifles,"  who,  with  a  few  European  troops,  keep  all 
in  order.  The  climate  seems  healthy  on  the  sea- 
coast  and  hills ;  and,  judging  by  a  drive  into  the 
country,  with  a  view  from  a  hill,  the  scenery  must 
all  be  beautiful. 


FROM  CEYLON  AND  THE  BAY  OF  BENGAL.   287 

MADRAS,  October  21,  1871. 

In  the  British  P.  &  O.  steamer,  the  Golconda, 
from  Suez  and  Aden,  via  Galle,  we  embarked  on  the 
19th  for  Calcutta,  via  Madras,  where  we  tarry  some 
hours,  only  to  let  out  British  goods  in  bales.  Ma- 
dras is  the  seat  of  government  of  the  Madras  (British) 
Presidency,  over  which  Lord  Napier,  some  fifteen  or 
twenty  years  ago  the  British  Minister  in  "Washing- 
ton, now  reigns.  His  lordship  is  reported  to  be  as 
great  a  beau  here  as  he  was  in  Washington,  when  a 
younger  man — a  great  favorite  with  the  ladies,  and, 
of  course,  not  so  great  a  favorite  with  the  men.  The 
Government  House,  or  Palace,  here,  and  the  public 
gardens  around,  are  sumptuously  kept  up ;  but  there 
is  nothing  in  the  place  to  see,  except  the  European 
residences  on  the  coast.  There  are  a  quarter  of  a 
million  of  people  in  the  city,  and  it  is  as  hot  just  now 
as  hot  can  be,  and  the  fashionable  people  have  not 
jet  come  down  from  "  the  hills,"  to  their  houses  on 
the  coast.  This  coast,  by  the  way,  is  bad,  very  bad, 
and,  in  this  cyclonic  season,  perilous.  The  roadstead 
is  all  open  to  the  sea,  and  the  winds  pour  in  a  surge 
and  surf  that  only  native  boats,  manned  by  some 
twenty  or  twenty-five  native  men,  can  manage  to 
ride  over — and  this,  too,  in  boats  not  nailed,  but 
sewed  together,  so  that  their  seams  accommodate  their 
motions  to  the  surf ! 

This  part  of  India — the  Bay  of  Bengal  side,  and 
the  other,  the  Arabian,  or  Indian  sea  side — is  the 
first  part  the  Europeans  got  hold  of,  after  the  Arabs 


288  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'  RUN. 

led  the  way  from  the  Ked  Sea.  First,  came  the  Por- 
tuguese, with  their  settlements  ;  then,  the  Spanish  ; 
then,  the  Dutch,  French,  and  English — all  now  lost  to 
the  Continental  nations,  except  Pondicherry  (French), 
on  this  side,  and  Goa  (Portuguese),  on  the  other.  One 
asks,  and  keeps  asking,  Why  have  the  great  Portu- 
guese and  the  yet  greater  Spanish,  been  almost  extin- 
guished in  the  East,  while  the  British  flag  rules  and 
reigns,  here,  there,  and  everywhere  ?  Many  say, 
"  because  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  !  "  Non- 
sense. The  Dutch  have  not  been  Roman  Catholics, 
and  they  have  nothing  left  but  Java  and  Sumatra. 
The  English  here  are,  in  religion,  Roman  Catholics, 
Hindoos,  Mohammedans,  Buddhists,  Parsees,  any 
thing  and  every  thing,  to  keep  power.  They  patronize, 
uphold,  and  vindicate  gods  of  all  sorts,  from  Yishnu 
to  Buddha,  for  the  sake  of  mammon.  The  Yeda  and 
Shastras  are  as  good  as  the  Bible  to  them,  if  as  well 
bound  in  gold.  In  my  judgment,  the  true  secret  of 
British  power  here  is  the  Anglo-Saxon  inveterate,  in- 
curable, indomitable  conviction  that  the  white  man 
is  the  intellectual  superior  of  the  red  man,  or  black 
man,  and  was  created  by  God  to  be  his  superior. 
This  is  not  Exeter-Hall  preaching,  I  know,  which 
has  been  transferred  to  the  conventicles  of  the  Unit- 
ed States,  but  it  is  the  conviction  of  the  Englishman 
here,  and  the  CONVICTION  and  ACTION  on  which  he 
governs  with  a  rod  of  iron,  though  a  very  malleable 
and  tender  rod,  his  200,000,000  of  Eastern  subjects. 
The  Portuguese,  and  the  Spanish,  and  the  French, 


PROM  CEYLON  AND  THE  BAY  OF  BENGAL.   289 

and  the  Dutch,  to  some,  though  a  lesser  extent,  at- 
tempted government  in  India  upon  the  different 
principle  of  equality  and  fraternity,  and  consequent 
amalgamation,  while  the  Englishman  has  preserved 
his  caste  and  his  race.  Just  what  is  the  story  in 
Mexico  and  other  Spanish  American  states,  is  the 
story  here — half  breeds,  quarter  breeds,  all  sorts  of 
breeds  of  Portuguese,  Spanish,  and  French,  and 
hence,  consequent  degradation  of  the  race,  and  loss 
of  empire — while  the  Briton  inflexibly  maintains  the 
superiority  and  mastery  of  his  race,  and  hence  has 
extended  his  empire,  almost  in  the  lifetime  of  many, 
from  Madras  and  the  Malabar  coast,  far,  far  beyond 
the  Ganges  and  the  Indus, — to  the  Himalaya  Moun- 
tains on  one  side,  and  to  the  Persian  Empire  on  the 
other — from  Australia  and  ]STew  Zealand — from  the 
equator,  south,  to  thirty-five  or  forty  degrees  north. 
The  merest  handful  of  Englishmen  here  are  governing 
a  world,  far,  far  beyond  the  wildest  dreams  of  Alex- 
ander the  Great,  or  of  Julius,  or  Augustus  Caesar. 

But,  how  one  wanders  off!  I  forget  I  am  on 
board  ship,  buying  new  Indian  native  puzzles  for  a 
few  cents,  to  take  home  to  puzzle  Americans,  or  look- 
ing at  native  jugglers,  who  bring  snakes  (the  poison- 
ous cobra)  on  board  ship,  to  hug  and  to  kiss,  and 
to  tease  to  make  them  swell  up  and  look  terrible ! 
I  forget  I  am  seeing  sticks  and  swords  thrust  down 
men's  throats,  and  mango-trees  made  to  grow — lo 
presto  ! — on  board  ship,  as  a  little  water  is  sprinkled 
upon  the  dry  sand  in  a  basket,  where  we  see  the  seed 


290  &  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

put  in.  "What  a  world  of  brains  must  have  been 
wasted  upon  these  magpie  jugglers,  to  enable  them 
to  cheat  us  so !  And  then  they  are  nearly  naked. 
An  anna  (three  cents)  abundantly  pays  them  for  swal- 
lowing a  sword,  or  spouting  out  fire  and  smoke  from 
their  nostrils.  And  such  is  the  greed  to  earn  the 
annas,  or  to  make  the  sales  of  puzzles,  and  baskets, 
and  embroideries,  and  tiger  slippers  for  men,  that 
the  quartermaster  of  the  steamer  has  to  stand  with  a 
huge  lash,  laying  it  on  the  backs  of  these  magpies  and 
monkeys,  to  thump  them  off  the  chains  and  rigging  of 
the  ship,  that,  otherwise,  they  would  cover  like  flies. 
The  "  Golconda "  is  soon  to  go  by  the  poetic 
mines  of  Golconda  (all  over  now),  and  by  the  land  of 
the  car  of  the  Juggernaut — the  car  yet  going,  but  no 
more  fools  going  under  its  crushing  wheels,  there  to  be 
ground  into  glory.  English  government  has  got  rid  of 
some  crimes  in  India — such  as  the  victimization  of  this 
Juggernaut  car,  such  as  the  suttee,  the  self-burning  of 
the  widows  to  follow  their  fresh  dead  husbands  to  the 
hereafter, — the  awful  Thugs,  and  the  filling  of  the 
Ganges'  with  corpses.  We  have  a  pleasant  set  of  pas- 
sengers on  board  this  Golconda,  the  most  of  whom, 
now,  are  Calcuttians,  merchants  and  officials,  some 
with  their  families  who  have  been  down  to  Galle  to 
breathe  the  sea  air,  or  to  the  !Neilgerry  hills,  in  Ma- 
dras. "We  read  all  the  histories  and  novels  we  can  get 
— the  latter,  especially — and  they  dance  (the  Virginia 
reel,  even,  here),  and  they  have  concerts,  and  sing  John 
Brown,  away  off  here — (with  a  gusto,  too,  and  as  if 


FROM  CEYLON  AND  THE  BAY  OF  BENGAL.   291 

in  compliment  to  me) — whose  (Brown's)  poor,  dead 
"  soul,"  if  it  was  "  to  march  on  "  in  British  India  as  it 
"  marched  on,"  for  five  or  six  years,  in  America,  would 
not  leave  a  Briton  alive  to  sing  or  to  dance  at  all. 
And  we  have  service  on  the  Sabbath,  from  a  clergy- 
man on  his  way,  with  his  new  wife,  to  be  settled 
somewhere,  he  knows  not  where,  in  India.  Thus,  on 
a  threatening  sea,  as  we  are  now,  and  on  a  coast,  this 
month  very  perilous  from  the  cyclone,  a  hymn  like 
this,  sung  by  many  voices,  touched  all  our  hearts : 

Eternal  Father,  strong  to  save, 
Whose  arm  hath  bound  the  restless  wave, 
"Who  bidst  the  mighty  ocean  deep 
Its  own  appointed  limits  keep, 

O  hear  us,  when  we  cry  to  Thee 

For  those  in  peril  on  the  sea. 

O  Christ,  whose  voice  the  waters  heard, 
And  hushed  their  raging  at  Thy  word, 
Who  walkest  on  the  foaming  deep, 
And  calm  amidst  its  rage  did  sleep, 

O  hear  us,  when  we  cry  to  Thee 

For  those  in  peril  on  the  sea. 

Most  Holy  Spirit,  who  didst  brood 
Upon  the  chaos  dark  and  rude, 
And  bidst  the  angry  tumult  cease, 
And  give,  for  wild  confusion,  peace, 

O  hear  us  when  we  cry  to  Thee 

For  those  in  peril  on  the  sea. 

O  Trinity  of  love  and  power, 

Our  brethren  shield  in  danger's  hour 

From  rock  and  tempest,  fire  and  foe, 

Protect  them  wheresoe'er  they  go, 
Thus  evermore  shall  rise  to  Thee 
Glad  hymns  of  praise  from  land  and  sea. 

Amen. 


LETTER  XXXII. 

BRITISH  INDIA. 

England  Forever  and  Ever— 200,000,000  British  Subjects— Standing  Army  of  820,000 
Soldiers. — Vast  Imports  and  Exports. — East  Indians. — Monkeys  or  Men. — Trade 
and  Commerce  of  India. — The  Holy  Ganges. — English,  "Water- Works  on  it. — 
Calcutta  no  longer  the  "  Black  Hole  " — Hot,  not  Unhealthy. — The  Punkah  Fan 
the  Great  Institution  of  India. — The  Punkah  Everywhere. — Tudor  and  His  Ice 
the  Great  Things  of  the  East— The  Hancocks,  the  Websters,  Nothing.— The 
Tudor  Every  Thing. — Wenham  Something. — Boston  Nothing. — The  Hoogley 
Kiver  and  the  Cyclones. — Enchanting  Approach  to  Calcutta. — The  King  of 
Oude. — A  Seventeen  Days'  Hindoo.Holiday  in  Calcutta. — Polygamy  and  Poly- 
andry.— Hindooism,  Buddhism,  Brahminism  and  Mohammedanism. — The  320,- 
000  Standing  Army  Government  o&India  not  a  Bad  One. 

CALCUTTA,   October  27,  1871 

ENGLAND,  once  more,  one  everlasting  England ! 
That  little  sea-girt  island  has  not  only  girdled  the 
great  isles  of  the  world,  and  put  its  stamp  upon  them, 
but,  here  am  I,  in  the  portals  of  a  British  East  India 
Empire,  the  very  magnitude  of  which  is  astounding. 
Think  of  it,  over  200,000,000  of  people,  native  and 
British  in  this  Indian  Government  proper,  under  the 
British  flag !  Satiated  with  the  very  vastness  of  do- 
minion here,  the  British  Crown  declines  more  land, 
and  farther  or  fresher  conquests  !  It  has  got  all  the 
land,  and  all  the  population  it  wants — nay,  more,  too, 
and  refuses,  actually,  to  be  bothered  with  yet  more  ! 
Think  of  the  revenues  and  expenditures  of  this  Brit- 
ish Indian  Empire,  $260,000,000  of  our  money,  incom- 
ing and  outgoing,  each.  Think  of  its  immense  army, 


BRITISH  INDIA.  293 

320,000  soldiers  in  all,  of  whom  70,000  are  European, 
the  others,  Indians,  under  British  officers,  all !  Think 
of  a  Christian  government  over  110,000,000  of  Hin- 
doos, 25,000,000  of  Mussulmans,  12,000,000  of  Aborig- 
inal Nothingarians,  3,000,000  of  Buddhists,  etc.,  etc. 
"What  a  medley  of  humanity  to  rule !  "What  a  mix- 
ture of  laws,  as  well  as  of  creeds,  and  of  tongues,  and 
languages  !  (There  are  sixteen,  or  more,  languages 
here,  that  a  British  ruler  ought  to  learn.)  "What  a 
vast  trade,  some  $250,000,000  of  imports,  and  over 
$500,000,000  of  exports  !  The  little  England  at  home, 
which  governs  all  this  vast  territory,  and  these  mil- 
lions of  people,  dwindles,  herself,  into  insignificance, 
when  contrasted  with  this,  her  mighty  Empire  of  the 
East. 

But  what  a  population !  When  I  first  began  to 
hear  and  see  the  Indians  of  the  East,  in  Singapore,  or 
in  Ceylon,  as  well  as  here,  rushing  about  like  madmen, 
in  boats,  around  our  ship,  I  could  not  but  cry  out, 
"  How  like  monkeys !  What  monkeys  !  Have  they 
immortal  souls  ? "  "  Yes,"  said  a  good  English  lady 
by  me,  "  all  of  them,  souls  to  be  saved,  or  lost,  as  well 
as  yours !  "  Doubtless,  it  is  so ;  but,  nevertheless,  as 
first  seen  on  the  shore,  "  What  monkeys ! ".  "  What 
wild  monkeys ! "  How  different  from  the  sober,  se- 
date, grand,  dignified  Chinese,  and  how  like  monkeys ! 
Rapid  conclusions  are,  however,  always  perilous ;  and 
no  nation  should  be  judged  by  its  boatmen  or  water- 
craft  men ;  and,  therefore,  already  I  begin  to  see 
India  is  not  a  nation  of  monkeys,  but  of  men,  real 


294:  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

live  men,  and  men  with  souls,  too,  if  they  do  believe 
in  any  thing  and  every  thing,  in  religion,  that  we 
laugh  at,  only,  or  pity. 

The  British  Indian  Government  is  in  Presidencies, 
with  a  governor  in  each,  and  a  governor-general  and 
council  over  all.  This  governor-general  has  a  salary 
of  over  $100,000  per  annum,  and  lives  and  moves  in 
royal  style,  to  astonish  and  astound  the  Indians,  if  not 
the  Britons.  Calcutta  is  the  seat  of  government  in 
coolish  weather,  from  November  to  March,  and  Simla, 
on  the  Himalaya  range  of  mountains,  the  headquarters 
of  the  government,  during  the  rest  of  the  year. 
Some  of  the  sources  of  revenue  to  support  this  govern- 
ment are  from — 

Opium $40,000,000 

Salt  (a  monopoly) 30,000,000 

Land 108,000,000 

Customs 12,000,000 

EXPENDITURES. 

Interest  on  Debt $14,000,000 

Army 64,000,000 

Public  Works  (1870) „ 33,000,000 

The  government  has  over  5,000  miles  of  railroads 
in  operation,  on  which  it  guarantees  five  per  cent, 
interest  to  the  corporators ;  and  the  huge  army  of 
320,000  is  supported  by  only  sixty-four  millions,  be- 
cause the  native  soldiers  receive  only  $3  50  or  $4  00 
per  month,  feeding  themselves  and  their  families  out 
of  that  miserable  pay,  and  almost  altogether  on 
rice. 

Well,  I  am  on  the  waters  ol  the  Ganges,  the  holy 


BRITISH  INDIA.  295 

Ganges  (the  Jordan  of  the  Hindoos),  to  be  buried  in 
which  is  a  sure  passport  to  glory !  If  glory  is  yellow 
like  gold,  the  Ganges,  then,  is  glorious — that  is,  yel- 
low, muddy,  dirty.  The  heathen  English  here  (think 
of  it)  pump  this  holy  water  into  reservoirs  (some  miles 
above  this  city),  and  draw  it  off  in  pipes,  and  filter, 
and  drink  it,  and  use  it  for  all  sorts  of  unholy,  as  well 
as  holy  purposes.  They  have  issued  terrible  paper 
edicts  against  throwing  Hindoo  dead  or  dying  bodies 
into  it,  on  their  way  to  glory ;  but,  nevertheless,  the 
dying  as  well  as  the  dead  Hindoo  is  yet  dumped  into 
it,  and  a  police  corps  has  to  be  kept,  especially,  to 
sink  the  dead  Hindoo,  when  his  corpse  pops  up  above 
the  water.  There  was  a  terrible  commotion,  at  first, 
among  the  Hindoos,  when  the  English  first  began  these 
water-works,  and  not  a  Hindoo  then  would  touch, 
taste,  or  handle  the  desecrated  waters  ;  but  some  high 
and  lofty  priest  was  tempted  to  say,  the  Hindoo  god 
would  overlook  the  desecration,  and  now  the  Hindoos 
use  it  just  like  other  people.  Of  course,  the  city  is 
made  far  healthier  by  this  use  of  good  water,  and  the 
sewers  carry  off  the  impurities  that  once  fostered  and 
created  the  terrible  cholera,  and  yet  alarming  diarrhoea. 
Calcutta  is  no  longer  the  "  black  hole."  Caucasians 
live  in  it,  the  whole  year  round,  jolly  and  hearty  ; 
and,  though  their  livers  do  suffer  occasionally,  they 
say,  nevertheless,  they  live,  eat,  and  drink  here  as  else- 
where— though,  in  the  drinking  of  claret,  soda-water, 
Bass's  beer,  etc.,  the  population,  in  proportion,  con- 
sume more,  probably,  than  any  other  people. 


296  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

Every  country  or  state  has  its  "  institutions."  We 
have  ours  in  the  United  States— peculiar  institutions ; 
but  the  institution  here  is  the  punkah.  What  is  the 
punkah?  you  ask,  perhaps.  Well,  it  is  the  great 
blower  of  India — the  institution  of  the  blow-out.  We 
fan  in  America.  They  fan  in  Japan  and  China ; 
but  here,  the  punkah,  the  everlasting  punkah,  the 
spread-out,  oblong,  parallelogram  fan,  moved  by  coolie 
power  only,  fans  you,  night  and  day.  You  wake  up 
under  the  fan ;  you  rise  under  the  fan  ;  you  break- 
fast and  dine  under  the  fan,  and  you  go  to  sleep  under 
the  fan.  There  is  an  everlasting  breeze  kept  up  over 
you  by  some  invisible  coolie,  hid  away,  in  some  hole, 
somewhere.  The  coolie  pulls  the  fan  for  two  or  three 
dollars  per  month,  and  finds  himself,  and  clothes  him- 
self— that  is,  in  a  clout,  which  costs  him  about  twenty- 
five  cents  the  year.  I  thought,  here,  of  suggesting 
to  some  acute  Yankee  the  invention  of  some  pendu- 
lum, or  self-moving  artificial  power,  to  pull  the  pun- 
kah, that  would  do  away  with  the  coolie,  and  send 
him  to  the  country  to  raise  indigo,  or  linseed,  or  jute ; 
but  the  coolie  here  is  cheaper  than  wood,  and  no  pen- 
dulum clock  invention,  even  from  Connecticut,  could 
compete  with  this  cheap  coolie  power.  Nevertheless, 
the  punkah  here  is  an  indispensable  institution.  I 
am  writing  now  under  a  glorious  breeze — the  artificial 
zephyr  of  the  punkah,  but  for  which  I  should  be  on 
the  sofa,  puffing,  panting,  and  struggling  for  breath. 

There  is  another  "institution"  here — a  great 
American  institution — that  is,  ICE.  It  is  not  so  cheap 


BRITISH  INDIA.  297 

as  the  punkah,  for  it  comes  all  the  way  from  Boston ; 
but,  to  a  Caucasian,  here,  it  is  about  as  indispensable. 
The  Tudor  Ice  Company  supplies  nearly  the  whole 
East  with  ice  "  from  Wenham  Lake,"  here,  they  say ; 
and  Wenham  Lake,  therefore,  is  better  known  in 
India  than  Lake  Michigan  or  Lake  Ontario.  "While 
Winnipiseogee  is  unknown,  Wenham,  dear  Wen- 
ham,  is  cherished,  and  blessed,  and  embraced,  and 
kissed  with  a  fervor,  here,  no  woman's  lips  ever  felt, 
frigid  as  is  ice.  Nearly  all  that  is  known  in  many 
parts  of  the  East,  is  Wenham,  dear  Wenham.  The 
Quincys,  the  Otises,  the  Websters,  the  Everetts  of 
Massachusetts,  are  all  unknown ;  but  Wenham  is 
illustrious — such  is  fame  !  Tudor,  too,  towers  on  tur- 
rets far  loftier  than  Bunker  Hill ;  and  where  Warren 
never  was  dreamed  of,  Tudor  stands  out  as  the  bright 
Northern  Star  !  Great  is  Tudor  in  the  East. 

We  Americans  meet  with  some  rough  misconcep- 
tions of  us  now  and  then,  among  ignorant  Europeans 
— not  many,  however,  for  our  flag,  in  days  gone  by 
(not  now),  spread  our  name  and  fame  far  and  wide  in 
the  East.  Once  American  ships  "  did  "  one-half  or 
three-fourths  of  the  freighting  of  the  commerce  of 
Calcutta ;  but,  alas  !  not  now,  did  I  see  an  American 
flag  on  the  Hoogley.  Once  we  carried  cotton,  and 
rice,  and  indigo  to  England.  At  one  time,  this  East- 
ern coasting  trade  was  largely  in  our  hands.  Alas, 
not  now  !  The  misconceptions  I  allude  to  come  of 
our  "  ice,"  and  because  we  hail  from  a  once  copper- 
colored  Indian  country,  supposed  to  be  like  this. 
14 


298  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

Some  few,  very  few,  yet  think  we  are  red,  like  these 
East  Indians.  More  are  sure,  we  are  come  from  a 
Greenland,  or  a  Norway,  or  Spitzbergen,  because  of 
our  ice.  Ice  could  now  be  had  as  cheap  from  the 
Himalaya  ranges,  by  rail,  as  from  Boston,  or,  from 
Hakodadi,  in  Japan,  or,  from  the  Peiho  River,  China 
— save  the  return  freights  to  America,  which  here  are 
profitable.  Our  only  exports  for  India  now  are  ice 
and  petroleum,  while  once  the  fabrics  of  our  looms 
came  into  competition  with  those  of  England. 

But,  before  I  run  on  much  further,  I  ought  to  in- 
troduce you  to  Calcutta,  the  metropolis  of  the  200,- 
000,000  British-governed  people,  I  have  written  of. 
We  did  not  enter  the  portals  of  Calcutta  with  first 
impressions  very  captivating.  A  cyclone,  or  some- 
thing like  it,  kept  us  in  the  lower  waters  of  the 
Hoogley  River,  a  branch  of  the  Ganges,  and  nearly 
one  hundred  miles  from  Calcutta,  from  a  Monday  till 
a  Friday.  The  pilot  did  not  dare  take  our  steamer 
up  the  Hoogley — ugly,  we  then  pronounced  the 
stream.  The  rain  poured  down  as  if  all  the  heavens 
were  let  loose,  and  the  winds  blew,  as  if  they  really 
would  crack  their  cheeks.  This  is  customary  weather, 
this  time  of  year,  when  the  Southern  monsoon  has  a 
fight  with  the  Northern  monsoon  for  the  mastery  of 
the  winds,  in  which,  of  course,  just  now,  the  South- 
erner was  whipped.  But,  thanks  to  our  good  fortune, 
we  had  no  cyclone.  I  have  dodged  both  typhoons  and 
cyclones  thus  far,  in  the  East,  and  feel  now  quite  se- 
cure of  not  being  tossed  up  in  the  air,  or  swashed 


BRITISH  INDIA.  299 

over  in  a  mountain  wave,  by  either  of  them.  The 
season  for  such  freaks,  out  here,  is  now  about  over. 
An  interesting  island,  called  Saugor,  with  only  a  light- 
house on  it,  and  that  stockaded  to  keep  out  the  tigers, 
was  all,  for  four  days,  that  we  had  to  look  at !  It  is 
an  island  of  jungle,  so  inhospitable,  and  so  full  of 
wild  beasts,  that  not  even  an  Indian  will  live  on  it. 
Several  British  vessels,  and  some  craft  from  the  Mai- 
dive  Islands,  were  anchored  near  us,  and  steam-tugs 
from  Calcutta  were  inviting  them,  in  the  calmer 
hours,  to  be  towed  up.  Saugor,  however,  and  the 
tigers  of  Saugor,  and  the  rain  and  gale  ended  at  last, 
and  the  sun  broke  forth,  if  in  all  its  splendor,  in  all  its 
fury,  too.  Thick  sea  clothes  were  laid  aside,  and  felt 
hats,  and  out  came  the  pith-head  umbrella  coverings, 
called  hats,  and  linen  and  grass  cloth.  As  the 
steamer  ascended  the  river,  fishermen's  villages  and 
scattered  huts  began  to  appear,  embosomed  in  stately 
purlieus,  amid  trees  of  shapes  unknown  before,  fields 
of  sugar-cane,  wide  levels  of  paddy  ground,  with  a 
verdure  universal,  and  as  bewitching  as  in  spring 
time.  As  we  neared  Calcutta,  on  a  bend  of  the  river 
called  Garden  Beach,  the  coup  d^osUl  was  enchanting. 
Palatial-like  houses  studded  the  banks  of  the  river. 
There,  is  the  palace  of  the  King  of  Oude,  who  has 
only  four  wives,  but  as  many  concubines  as  Solomon, 
whom  the  British  government  support  here  (after 
stripping  him  of  his  kingdom  of  Oude),  at  the  expense 
of  a  quarter  of  a  million  a  year.  There,  is  the  Bishop's 
college,  where  Episcopalians,  native  as  well  as  Euro- 


300  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

peans,  are  trained  up  to  preach  Episcopalianism  to 
Hindoo,  and  Mohammedan,  and  Buddhist,  and  Parsee, 
with  but  a  very  poor  success,  I  am  sorry  to  say.  And 
then,  there  are  the  mansions  of  the  rich  merchants, 
the  British  nabobs,  who  have  hoarded  gold,  and  de- 
stroyed their  livers,  but  who,  while  living,  live  here 
luxuriously.  Beyond  here  is  the  river,  covered  with 
boats  of  every  conceivable  form,  and  multitudes  of 
vessels  and  steam-engines,  while  palanquins,  buggies, 
phaetons,  ghares,  hackeries,  and  other  odd  modes  of 
conveyance,  line  the  shore,  and  tempt  you  to  land,  to 
be  carried  off  into  the  city.  Calcutta  has  no  walls. 
You  enter  it  without  portcullis,  or  any  other  threat- 
ening fortification.  Fort  William,  nearly  in  the 
heart  of  the  city,  is  strong,  well  filled  with  soldiers, 
and,  in  the  event  of  an  Indian  insurrection,  the  whole 
European  population  could  be  huddled  into  its  cir- 
cumvallation. 

I  have  got  here,  I  see  now,  just  in  the  wrong 
time  ;  and  I  cannot  get  any  money  to  get  out  till  the 
right  time  comes.  This  is  the  Doorga  Poohjah  holi- 
day week — seventeen  days,  the  Hindoos  make  of  it— 
and  no  bank  or  banker  opens,  and  the  custom-house 
is  shut,  till  the  Doorga  Poohjah  holidays  are  over ! 
This  is  consoling,  in  a  city  you  get  into  to  get  out  of 
as  soon  as  you  can  raise  the  wind,  and  from  which, 
almost  everybody,  you  would  like  to  see,  is  gone 
to  pass  the  holidays.  If  it  were  not  for  some  ten 
or  twelve  Christian  churches  here,  of  almost  all  the 
great  denominations,  I  should  call  this  altogether,  not 


BRITISH  INDIA.  301 

almost  altogether,  a  Hindoo  country.  Every  thing 
is  closed  up.  There  is  nothing  to  get  at  or  into,  only 
the  exterior  to  see.  But,  on  Monday  next,  Chris- 
tianity revives,  and  the  banks  and  the  custom-house 
open. 

Pondering  upon  this  topic,  I  tumble  upon  another, 
and  that  is,  what  an  odd,  extraordinarily  odd,  Chris- 
tian country  John  Bull  has  made  of  this  vast  India ! 
Polygamy,  here,  is  just  as  prevalent  as  with  Brigham 
Young,  in  Utah;  but  here,  not  as  in  Utah,  it  is 
yielded  to,  and  sanctioned  by  law !  A  Frenchman 
living  here,  the  other  day,  did  not  love  his  own 
French  wife  enough,  not  to  want  another.  To  win 
that  other,  a  French  captivating  milliner,  he  shuffled 
off  his  Christianity,  and  put  on  Mohammedanism. 
The  to-be  wife  and  the  double  husband  both  became 
Mohammedans.  Then,  under  this  British  govern- 
ment, it  became  lawful  for  him  to  have  two,  nay,  four 
wives,  while,  as  a  Christian,  it  would  have  been  polyg- 
amy to  have  more  than  one.  The  British  press  laughs 
at  us,  because  of  Indiana  divorces ;  but  all  a  Christian 
Briton  has  to  do,  to  be  rid  of  one  wife,  and  to  have 
another,  is  to  come  to  India,  turn  Mohammedan,  and 
then,  if  he  pleases,  he  can  marry  four.  In  the  Madras 
presidency,  where  Lord  Napier  reigns,  there  is  a  sect 
called  layers,  who  observe  the  Marumak-Kaytam 
doctrine,  where  polyandry  is  no  offence.  A  woman 
may  have  as  many  husbands  as  she  likes.  I  only 
suggest  this  to  John  Bull,  when  his  press  is  rather 
hard  upon  our  dark  spot,  Utah,  or,  the  divorce  courts 


302  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

of  Indiana.  The  fact  is,  the  British  government,  in 
order  to  keep  quiet  possession  in  India,  not  only  keep 
up  an  army  of  320,000  men,  "but  keep  up,  too,  Hin- 
dooism,  Buddhism,  Brahminism,  Mohammedanism, 
and  all  the  other  isms.  The  British  government 
rules  over  such  a  variety  of  races,  languages,  manners, 
laws,  and  religions,  that,  in  order  to  live  in  peace,  it 
caters  to  all. — Curious  government,  is  it  not  ?  The 
Governor-General,  or  Yiceroy,  from  England — and  a 
council,  here,  created  by  him — the  two  legislating  for 
all,  without  any  elections,  or  the  bother  of  them,  en- 
force all  edicts  by  an  army  of  320,000  men.  Never- 
theless, the  British  government  has  been,  in  the  main, 
a  good  government  for  India,  for  it  snatched  her  from 
the  perdition  of  civil  commotions,  and  secured  lor 
the  governed,  equity  and  justice,  though  the  land 
robberies  perpetrated  in  so  doing  have  been  prodig- 
ious. There  are  native  as  well  as  English-born  magis- 
trates in  the  lower  magistracies.  There  are  native 
policemen,  and  native  juries,  in  some  cases ;  but  the 
•jury  system  does  not  work  well,  magistrates  tell  me, 
among  the  natives  here.  There  are  some  few  natives 
in  the  high  council  of  state.  But  in  almost  all  cases 
the  officers,  civil  as  well  as  military,  come  from  Eng- 
land. I  do  not  suppose  there  are  200,000,000  of 
Indians  anywhere  so  well  governed ;  and  yet,  were 
it  not  for  the  320,000  soldiers,  ever  in  arms,  the  Brit- 
ish flag  would  not  wave  a  year  in  India.  It  hangs 
over  a  volcano,  ever  ready  for  an  eruption.  But 
good-by  for  to-day. 


LETTER  XXXIII. 

THINGS  AND  THOUGHTS  IN  CALCUTTA 

The  Impudent  Crows  of  Calcutta. — How  they  chatter. — A  Drove  of  Elephants  em- 
barking for  "War. — The  "Central  Park  "  and  "  Hyde  Park"  of  Calcutta. — Funny 
Liveries. — The  Trade  of  the  Metropolis  of  India.— Exports,  Cutch,  Coir,  Jute, 
Indigo,  and  so  on. — The  Cocoa-nut  Tree. — American  Trade. — Assam  Tea. — The 
Opium  Trade,  a  Government  Monopoly. — The  Flocks  of  Servants  in  Calcutta. — 
No  Women  Servants. — All  Men. — Men  as  Washerwomen. — The  Woman  invisi- 
ble.— English  Women  going  to  India. — The  Chit  and  the  Coolie. — The  Ladies' 
Chit. — Charming  Social  Life  in  Calcutta. 

CALCUTTA,  October  29,  1871. 

THE  morning  music  of  Calcutta  is  not  very  be- 
witching. After  the  loud  morning  gun  from  the 
fort,  about  5  A.  M.,  which  startles,  now,  before  day- 
light, all  from  their  slumbers,  comes  the  "caw," 
"  caw,"  "  caw,"  of  great  droves  of  crows,  which  fill, 
and  at  times  almost  darken,  the  sky.  They  not  only 
keep  up  a  frightful  clatter,  but  they  pop  into  your 
windows,  and  if  you  are  not  watchful  while  break- 
fasting on  the  veranda,  they  will  steal  your  bread 
and  toast  from  the  table.  Crows  are  respected  in  Cal- 
cutta as  scavengers,  as  are  dogs  in  Constantinople. 
Crows  and  vultures  pick  up  the  offal  in  all  directions, 
and  do  much  toward  maintaining  good  air  and  good 
smells  in  Calcutta.  Hence,  the  noise  and  thieving 
of  the  rascals  are  borne  with,  and  they  are  not  shot, 
as  they  ought  to  be. 


304:  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

I  have  been  to  see  a  drove  of  elephants  hoisted  on 
board  of  a  steamer,  to  be  taken  somewhere  into  Bnr- 
mah.  Some  Indian  tribe  there  has  been  raiding  upon 
British  territory,  and  a  little  army  of  natives,  and  a 
lesser  force  of  Europeans,  are  to  be  sent  out  to  teach 
them  better  manners.  The  elephants  belong  to  the 
commissariat,  and  are  to  carry  the  provisions  and  the 
burdens — each  elephant  being  able  to  walk  off  with 
at  least  eight  hundred  pounds  on  his  back,  besides 
his  driver.  There  were  some  forty  to  be  hoisted  upon 
this  steamer,  and,  naturally  enough,  the  novelty  of 
the  derrick  that  lifted  them  from  their  feet  high  into 
the  air,  was  not  very  agreeable ;  but  these  war  ele- 
phants are  under  good  discipline,  and  do  what  is  bid- 
den. They  were  fed  on  sugar-cane,  to  make  them 
sweeter  tempered,  perhaps,  and  bathed  in  the  river, 
and  washed  by  their  masters,  to  cool  off  their  temper, 
it  may  be. 

And  I  have  been  to  the  evening  drive — the  Cen- 
tral Park  and  Hyde  Park  evening  show  of  Calcutta 
— where  turn  out  the  fashion,  the  glow,  and  the  glit- 
ter, and  the  horses,  and  the  equipages,  of  this  metro- 
politan India.  A  band  of  music  regales  the  visitors 
in  a  garden  near  by ;  and  this  night,  the  full  moon, 
mingled  with  the  showy  gas-light,  and  the  good 
music  of  a  great  band,  with  the  novelty  of  Indian 
carriages  in  livery,  and  Indian  nurses  with  European 
children,  the  scene  was  not  only  novel  but  charming. 
The  Indian  liveries  of  "  the  swells "  of  the  city  are 
quite  startling.  There  are  two  men  behind  the  coach, 


THINGS  AND  THOUGHTS  IN  CALCUTTA.          305 

with  the  driver  before — all  in  a  groundwork  of  white, 
generally  with  flaming  turbans  and  sashes  on,  but 
with  bare  legs  and  naked  feet.  There  are  Indian 
native  "  swells,"  with  their  liveries,  as  well  as  Euro- 
pean and  Parsee  "swells."  I  have  not  seen,  how- 
ever, the  full  glow  and  glitter  of  this  evening  drive. 
This  is  not  the  fashionable  season.  "The  Court" 
— that  is,  the  Yiceroy — is  hundreds  of  miles  off, 
among  the  Ilimalayas,  hunting  tigers  and  leopards 
and  other  wild  beasts;  and  all  that  is  left  here  is 
what  could  not  run  away. 

Calcutta  is  a  city  of  great  business,  as  well  as  the 
metropolis  of  India.  The  Ganges  and  its  tributaries 
roll  down  their  wealth  here,  as  well  as  their  waters. 
But  the  Ganges  is  not  navigable  the  whole  year 
round,  like  the  Mississippi  or  Missouri  (the  lower 
parts).  Sands  and  silt  fill  up  its  currents,  and  in  the 
dry  season,  forbid  steamboat  navigation.  There  go 
from  here  rice,  cotton,  linseed,  and  almost  all  sorts 
of  seeds,  cutch,  coir,  indigo,  dyeing  materials  of  most 
kinds,  and  many  materials  for  manufactures,  among 
which  jute  has  become  a  great  article  of  export, 
mainly  to  Dundee,  in  Scotland,  and  largely  to  Amer- 
ica. Of  jute,  now — and  an  article  of  commerce 
scarcely  known  ten  years  ago — even  excellent  colored 
shirts  are  made,  as  well  as  paper.  "What  was  worth 
nothing  in  India  but  yesterday,  is  now  of  great  val- 
ue !  The  Dundee  jute  manufactures  abound  in  Amer- 
ica. Jute,  like  coir,  is  a  vegetable  good  for  rope ;  and 
like  the  cocoa-nut  tree,  from  the  fibre  of  which  coir 


306  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

rope  is  made,  jute  is  good  for  every  tiling.  There  are 
only  five  or  six  American  nouses  in  Calcutta  now, 
and  the  Greek  merchants  are  crowding  them  out 
with  their  immense  ready  capital,  while  we,  here  as 
everywhere  else  in  the  East,  do  business  "  on  tick," 
via  London,  or  through  the  Oriental  Bank  and  its 
branches  in  every  Eastern  city  of  any  size.  Our 
freighting  ships  have  been  crowded  off ;  our  exports 
of  Lowell  and  Lawrence  goods  have  been  killed  ;  and 
hence,  we  must  "  tick,"  "  tick,"  "  tick,"  via  London, 
as  we  have  not  the  wherewith  here  to  pay.  Tea,  As- 
sam tea,  especially,  is  becoming  here  a  large  article 
of  export  to  England.  It  is  stronger  than  the  Chi- 
nese teas,  and  is  mixed  with  them  in  Liverpool  and 
London.  There  are  thirty-one  tea  companies  in  Cal- 
cutta, and  the  Assam,  the  oldest,  divides  over  fifteen 
per  cent.  Poor  China  will  be  in  a  bad  way  with 
British  India,  if  Assam  teas  ever  crowd  off  Chinese 
teas  in  the  marts  of  the  world — for,  now,  India  sends 
thirty  or  forty  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  opium  to 
China  every  year,  deriving  a  revenue  therefrom  of 
from  thirty  to  forty  millions  of  dollars  a  year.  But 
India  is  not  to  have,  in  this  respect,  all  her  own  way. 
The  Chinese  now  are  increasing  their  growth  of 
opium,  and  preparing  to  supply  themselves.  But 
what  a  melancholy  trade  all  this  is !  What  death  to 
the  Chinese,  thus  to  support  the  nabob  governments 
of  India !  There  is  no  topic  on  which  Britons  more 
dispute,  here  in  the  East,  than  on  this  opium  trade. 
Many  merchants  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  but 


THINGS  AND   THOUGHTS  IN   CALCUTTA.  307 

there  are  enough  left  who  will.  Many  denounce  their 
own  Government  for  the  Chinese  opium  war ;  others 
pronounce  the  trade  immoral  and  wicked ;  but,  never- 
theless, rich  argosies  of  opium  are  ever  going  from 
Calcutta  and  Bombay  to  China. 

Opium  in  India  is  a  Government  monopoly.  No- 
body can  raise,  buy,  or  sell  opium  but  under  Govern- 
ment sanction  or  authority.  The  Government  fixes 
the  price  it  will  pay  the  planter — a  pretty  liberal 
price,  too — buys  all  he  has  to  sell,  and  then  sells  all 
that  to  the  highest  bidder  at  public  auction,  when 
the  merchant  becomes  possessed  of  it,  and  when  he 
sends  it  in  opium  ships  to  the  markets  of  the  world. 
To  regulate  prices,  the  Government  names  the  num- 
ber of  opium  bales  it  will  sell  every  year,  and  thus 
guarantees  the  merchant  from  any  supply  beyond  his 
calculations.  From  thirty  to  forty  millions  of  dollars 
per  annum  are  raised  by  the  Government  in  this 
,way ;  and,  "how  can  we  do  without  this  revenue?" 
they  ask.  "  What  can  we  substitute  for  it  ? "  "  We 
have  stamp-taxes,  income-taxes,  and  a  salt  monopoly, 
now."  "  What  can  we  pile  on,  if  we  take  opium 
off?"  And  thus  poor  China  pays  the  piper,  who 
plays  "  God  save  the  Queen,"  in  India,  from  Burmah 
and  Ceylon  on  to  the  Indus  and  the  Himalayas.  Thus, 
in  strong  money-links  the  British  now  have  the  whole 
Eastern  world,  Japan  alone  excepted,  and  that  with 
a  perhaps. 

What,  among  other  things,  excites  the  astonish- 
ment of  visitors  here,  are  the  flocks  of  servants,  yes 


308  A   SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

flocks — swarms,  too,  I  might  add — in  every  house. 
The  castes  are  so  strong,  and  such  is  the  religious 
determination  of  one  caste  not  to  be  degraded  by  an- 
other— so  many  are  the  superstitions  touching  food, 
and  even  clothes,  that  a  separate  servant  must  be  had 
to  do  almost  every  class  of  labor  that  is  servile.  A 
bachelor  acquaintance  of  mine,  whose  income  as  a 
civil  officer  of  the  Government  cannot  be  great,  not 
such  as  the  income  of  a  merchant,  numbers  twenty- 
two  in  his  little  bachelor  establishment !  Every  horse 
has  to  have  a  man  for  that  particular  horse — certainly 
one,  and  two,  probably — one,  to  cut  the  grass  for  the 
horse  to  eat,  and  another  to  take  care  of  the  beast ; 
then  the  driver  or  coachman,  and  then  the  livery- 
men, two,  if  not  three,  in  cheap,  barefooted  liveries, 
to  be  sure,  and  not  costly,  though  very  showy  in 
colors  at  times ;  then,  men  to  pull  the  punkah  night 
and  day ;  then,  his  personal  man,  to  stand  by  him  at 
all  times.  These  servants,  to  be  sure,  have  only  six 
or  nine  cents  wages  per  day,  finding  themselves,  and 
they  sleep,  by  choice,  on  the  verandas,  in  the  open 
air,  with  no  cost,  therefore,  for  room  or  beds ;  but, 
nevertheless,  there  are  so  many  of  them,  for  almost 
every  thing,  that  they  must  be  costly  as  well  as 
troublesome.  Some  head  butler,  however,  better 
paid  than  his  subordinates,  saves  his  master  from  all 
trouble  and  care ;  and  when  once  a  household  is  well 
trained,  all  move  like  clock-work,  though  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  work,  it  must  be  confessed,  is  far 
more  imperfect  than  among  the  superior,  and  far 


THINGS  AND  THOUGHTS  IN  CALCUTTA.  399 

more  intelligent  Chinese.  Trust  these  servants,  mas- 
ters say  here,  and  then  they  may  be  safely  trusted  in 
their  respective  vocations ;  but  doubt  them,  and  lock 
up  from  them,  so  as  to  enable  them  to  shuffle  off  re- 
sponsibility from  the  one  to  the  other,  then,  they  be- 
come thieves  of  a  hard  kind.  They  have  little  or  no 
character  at  bottom,  we  are  told — no  fond — and  the 
machinery  must  ever  be  well  handled,  and  well  oiled, 
to  work  well  in  an  establishment. 

There  .are  no  women  chambermaids,  or  other 
female  servants,  anywhere  in  the  East,  except  a  very 
few  nurses  (Ayahs)  for  children.  Men  are  very  often 
children's  nurses,  in  one  sense — of  course,  not  in  all. 
Men  surround  American  or  European  ladies,  and  do 
all  their  servile  work,  from  that  of  chambermaid  to 
washerwoman.  They  wash  and  they  iron  to  perfec- 
tion, even  ladies'  most  complicated  ruffles  and  plaits 
(three  cents  each  is  the  average  price  for  every  thing) ; 
.  but  as  they  thrash  the  soiled  clothes  on  the  rocks,  to 
thrash  out  the  dirt,  clothes,  under  such  hard  treat- 
ment, of  course,  will  not  last  long.  The  wash-board, 
the  destructive  rubbing  machine  of  our  country,  is 
unknown  here,  and  the  turn-crank  washing-machine, 
even  if  steam-driven,  could  never  compete  with  the 
paws  and  claws  of  "  the  heathen  Chinee,"  or  these 
more  heathen  Indians.  Women,  therefore,  are  scarce 
luxuries  to  be  seen  in  these  Eastern  countries,  except 
the  very  common  class,  for  a  true  Mussulman  would 
almost  as  lief  die  as  have  Christian  or  Hindoo  eyes 
light  upon  his  first,  or,  forty-first,  wife.  I  have  just 


310  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

seen  one  muffled-up  "  better  half"  (or  better  one-forti- 
eth, perhaps),  on  a  chair,  covered  all  over  with  "  copper 
plate,"  "  dumped  into  "  the  ladies'  department  of  the 
ladies'  railroad  car,  invisible  to  mortal  eyes,  even  to 
mine,  with  a  double  pair  of  glasses  on.  These  dear 
Eastern  creatures  never  see  daylight  when  men  are 
about,  and  the  Hindoo  women  of  high  caste  are  as 
scarce  as  these  Moslem  women.  What  a  country,  then, 
for  men  to  live  in,  with  no  women  to  see !  More 
especially  for  European  men,  whose  eyes,  long  lost  to 
the  blessing,  brighten  and  glisten,  therefore,  whenever 
that  dazzling  article  of  creation  comes  along.  They 
do  say — it  must  be  scandal,  though — that  English 
women  come  out  here  to  India,  for  this  very  reason, 
to  tempt  forlorn,  deserted  bachelors  into  being  hus- 
bands ;  and  it  is  hard,  very  hard,  for  the  forlorn  bache- 
lor, not  to  take,  for  better  or  for  worse,  even  the  spin- 
ster who  has  run  out  her  career  in  London  or  Brigh- 
ton, and  who  opens,  or  hopes  to  open,  a  new  career, 
if  not  in  Calcutta,  in  some  hill  station  among  men, 
where  there  is  not  even  one  woman,  except  the  in- 
visible Moslem,  or  Hindoo.  Five  or  six  very  pretty 
and  unmarried  ladies  came  up  with  us  in  the  Galle 
steamer,  direct  from  England,  with  fresh  English-look- 
ing cheeks,  and  bouncing  ringlets.  One  of  them  was 
going  out  "  engaged,"  and  to  be  married  the  clay  or 
two  after  she  landed  in  Burmah.  But  how  her  red 
cheeks  will  soon  "  wash  out,"  pallid  and  pale,  in  this 
hot  climate,  and  her  ringlets  bother  her,  as  the  per- 
spiration trickles  down  them !  The  fact  is,  though, 


THINGS  AND  THOUGHTS  IN   CALCUTTA.  31 1 

Englishmen,  unless  they  are  rich  merchants,  cannot 
afford  to  marry  here,  heavenly  as  the  luxury  of  a 
good  wife  must  be  in  this  hapless  land.  Their 
salaries,  though  big  in  our  estimation,  are  not  big 
enough  to  support  a  wife  in  India;  and  children, 
when  born,  cannot  live  here,  after  four  or  five  years 
of  age,  being  certain  to  die,  or  to  dwindle  down  into 
cream-cheese,  idiotic  sort  of  anatomies,  with  little 
life,  and  less  intelligence,  in  them.  All,  therefore, 
must  be  sent  home  to  England  in  their  childhood. 

Calcutta  (or  rather,  Bengal  and  Burmah)  is  the 
mother  of  many  other  institutions  than  "  the  pun- 
kah," to  fan  and  blow,  for — despite  what  Cowper 
wrote — 

"  I  would  not  have  a  slave  to  fan  me  while  I  sleep,"  etc., 

every  Englishman  in  India  turns  the  Indian  into  a 
sort  of  slave — not  chattel  slave,  not  marketable,  but 
none  the  less,  the  slave,  who  not  only  fans  him  while 
he  sleeps,  but  does  all  other  sorts  of  like  kind 
things  for  him  to  keep  him  alive  and  cool.  Among 
these  other  institutions  is  "the  Chit,"  which  has 
been  freely  adopted  from  India  into  both  Japan  and 
China.  In  a  country  where  it  is  so  hot  that  you  can- 
not run  out  to  talk,  or  trade,  or  send  a  messenger  to 
talk  for  you,  because  none  of  them  well  enough  un- 
derstand the  English  language,  writing  is  always 
resorted  to — that  is,  "  Chits  " — and  the  Indian  takes 
"  the  Chit "  from  white  man  to  white  man,  awaiting 
the  formal  acceptance  in  a  book  he  carries  with  him, 


312  ^  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

or  the  reply,  in  another  "  Chit."  Every  thing,  thus, 
is  done  in  writing.  Messages  are  often  recorded  in  a 
common  book,  which  everybody  sees,  as  that  book 
passes  from  one  to  another.  This  is  well  enough, 
ordinarily,  and  in  business  life,  but  when  ladies  enter 
upon  the  Chit  business,  they  often  make  "  a  muss  " 
of  it,  especially  if  the  "  Chits  "  be  of  affection  or 
love,  or,  between  man  and  woman.  "Yours,  lov- 
ingly," does  not  read  well  in  public  record,  even,  if 
ever  so  innocently,  between  lady  and  lady's  man. 
Nor  do  rouge,  or  powder,  or  cologne,  or  false  hair,  if 
thus  sent  for,  read  as  well  as  if  not  read  at  all.  "I 
am  dying  to  see  you,"  writes  one,  and  another  reader 
wonders  if  the  death  has  taken  place,  or  if  the  visit 
was  made  to  save  the  life.  Chits  in  ladies'  hands,  it 
is  easy  to  come  to  the  conclusion,  are  a  perilous  In- 
dian institution,  however  necessary  among  men.  A 
telegram  here  is  called  "a  telechit."  A  wearied 
Chit  writer  says,  "I  have  been  chitting  all  day." 
Chits  pour  in  upon  you  at  all  times,  before  break- 
fast, in  bed,  in  the  bath,  at  "  tiffin,"  at  dinner,  in  the 
theatre,  at  the  ballroom.  There  is  no  end  of  Chits. 
Elsewhere  in  the  world  you  may  escape  a  bore,  but 
in  India  there  is  no  escaping  a  Chit.  Nevertheless, 
the  institution  is  indispensable  in  a  climate  like  this, 
where,  for  some  hours  in  the  day,  it  is  as  much  as  a 
man's  life  is  worth  to  face  the  sun,  unless  he  has  a 
two-storied  pith  hat  or  helmet  on  his  head,  and  col- 
ored goggles  to  save  his  eyes. 

But,  hot  as  it  is,  I  am  sorry  to  leave  Calcutta — 


THINGS  AND  THOUGHTS  IN  CALCUTTA.           313 

for,  socially,  it  seems  to  me  a  charming  place.  I 
came  without  a  single  letter  of  introduction ;  but, 
through  passengers  on  board  the  steamer,  many  doors 
have  been  open  to  me,  and  I  have  been  as  hospitably 
welcomed  as  if  I  were  an  Englishman  in  high  posi- 
tion, and  all  the  more  welcome  for  being  an  Amer- 
ican. 


LETTER  XXXIY. 

THE    RUN  ACROSS    INDIA. 

Things  in  India.— Rail  from  Calcutta  to  Bombay.— The  Raging  Sun  of  India.— The 
Parsees  of  Bombay. — Fire  Worshippers.— Sunday  Evening's  Work  in  Cal- 
cutta.— India  Railroad  Cars. — How  they  are  cooled,  and  how  they  are  convert- 
ing the  Pagans. — The  Telegraphs  of  India. — Journalism  in  India. —  Coal  in 
India. — The  "Way  Coolies  work. — Indian  Muslins  and  Cashmere  Shawls. — The 
Plains  of  the  Ganges. — The  Pagan  Temples  of  India. — Hindoos  more  intelligent 
than  Mohammedans. — Allahabad. — Jubbalpore. — The  Passage  of  the  Ghauts. — 
Entrance  into  Bombay. 

BOMBAY,  October  31,  1871. 

INDIA  "  done  "  up !  One  week  in  it ! — from  Cal- 
cutta to  Bombay,  1,420  miles,  in  sixty-two  hours  1 
Who  can  beat  that  ?  And  I  have  seen  so  much,  and 
slept  through  so  much,  that  quite  a  book  might  be 
filled  thereon.  The  fact  is,  I  am  in  a  hurry  to  get 
home,  have  seen  enough,  and  don't  want  to  see  any 
more.  My  eyes  are  weary,  and  all  my  senses  sur- 
feited with  the  glories  of  Buddhism,  Hindooism, 
Mohammedanism,  Parseeism,  and  the  dominion,  of 
England  over  them  all.  !No  man  ought  ever  to  travel 
for  instruction,  or  pleasure,  over  three  months  at  one 
time,  for,  after  that,  all  the  senses  become  intoxicated, 
as  it  were,  and  then  so  blunted  that  the  eyes  decline Jto 
see,  or  the  ears  to  hear.  Rest,  long  interludes  of  rest, 
become  as  indispensable  to  the  traveller — rest,  for  all 
his  senses — as  day  and  night ;  and  hence,  six  continu- 


THE  RUN  ACROSS  INDIA.  315 

ous  months  of  sight-seeing  have  blunted  curiosity,  and 
all  the  faculties  connected  therewith.  But,  1,420  miles 
u  done "  in  India,  in  sixty-two  hours,  from  the  Bay 
of  Bengal  and  the  Ganges,  to  the  Sea  of  Arabia — 
think  of  that !  And  we  slept  by  the  way  a  good  deal. 
We  wasted  much  time  at  many,  many  stations; 
but  our  speed,  while  going,  was  thirty  miles,  and 
sometimes  forty  miles  the  hour,  over  first-class  rail- 
roads, better  built  than  any  we  have  in  America,  cost- 
ing three  dollars  per  mile  to  our  one ;  over  frightfully 
flooding  rivers ;  through  terrible  mountain  passes — 
but  then  again  on  long  level  plains,  as  smooth  as  our 
prairies,  and  with  cultivation  more  beautiful,  if  possi- 
ble, than  many  parts  on  the  Connecticut  River. 

And  it  is  so  hot  here  yet,  when  the  raging  sun 
roasts  and  burns  us ;  but,  happily,  cool  and  consoling, 
when  that  fiery  monster  goes  down  at  night !  The 
sun,  here,  though  creating  and  vivifying  all  the  ele- 
ments of  life,  is  Caucasian  man's  mortal  enemy.  The 
very  look  at  it,  in  the  daytime,  runs  a  poor  fellow 
half  wild  with  fever.  An  ice-house  is  paradise,  and 
ice  is  manna,  or  whatever  you  like  best,  be  it  roast 
beef  and  plum-pudding  (the  English  manna),  or  mint 
julep,  or  sherry  cobbler.  Heaven  bless  Tudor  again, 
the  immortal  Tudor,  who  is  here,  as  well  as  every- 
where else,  in  the  East.  I  hear  from  New  York,  Sep- 
tember 22,  that  a  Bombay  Parsee  (a  Mr.  "Wadiah)  was 
suffering  from  the  climate,  and  compelled  to  wear  three 
overcoats  to  keep  him  warm  there !  I  could  lend  him, 
to-day,  my  skin,  the  epidermis  and  cuticle,  at  least,  if 


316  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

he  were  liere,  to  keep  him  warm ;  for,  just  now,  there  is 
no  need  of  clothes,  nay,  no  need  of  a  skin,  as  even 
bones  might  melt  in  the  noonday  sun.  The  great 
Creator  has  made  these  Indians,  as  well  as  the  Chi- 
nese, our  superiors  in  one  thing,  at  least,  and  that  is, 
in  standing  bareheaded,  if  necessary,  the  full  blaze 
of  the  sun's  noonday  rays.  Nevertheless,  many 
Englishmen  do  live  and  thrive  here,  in  good  health, 
and  with  sound  livers ;  but  they  eat  little,  and  drink 
less.  Great  feeders  and  drinkers  here  die  early,  or  go 
home  without  a  liver. 

The  first  thing  that  arrests  an  American  traveller's 
attention  here,  is  the  hard  Parsee  names — (Parsees 
do  a  large  portion  of  the  business  of  Bombay) — such 
as  Badabhoy  Durshaw  Gandy,  or,  Cursetjee  Nesser- 
wanjee  Cama,  or,  Hajee  Zanel  Abardin  Sheerazee. 
One  great  man  of  Bombay  was  Sir  Jamsetjee  Jehee- 
bhoy,  and  another,  Cowasjee  Jehanghir,  who  both  did 
much  for  charity,  and  thus  left  names  to  future  fame. 
The  Parsees  are  said  to  be  fire  worshippers,  but  this 
is  doubtful,  in  the  sense  outgiven — for  who  could 
worship  fire  or  sun,  here,  or  any  idol  but  ice  ?  They 
are  European  in  look,  build,  and  style,  but  tawny. 
They  have  all  the  skill  and  quickness  in  business  that 
Europeans  have,  and  the  same  faculty  for  making 
money.  The  Mohammedans,  they  say,  drove  them 
out  of  Persia  some  centuries  gone  by,  and  they  came 
here,  as  the  Puritans  did  to  Plymouth,  for  religious 
peace ;  but  they  agreed  to  do  what  the  Puritans  would 
never  do,  live  quietly  and  like  other  people;  and 


THE   RUN  ACROSS  INDIA.  317 

hence,  they  (the  Parsees)  eat  no  pork,  and  speak  the 
native  language  of  the  country.  Hence,  they  have 
had  for  centuries  safety  and  peace,  and  are  now  most 
loyal  subjects  of  Queen  Victoria.  During  our  civil 
war,  on  the  rise  of  cotton,  they  made  immense 
fortunes,  and  rolled  in  wealth ;  but,  when  our  war 
went  down,  their  cotton  went  down,  and  many  of 
them  with  it.  I  have  been  introduced  to  some  of 
these  Parsees — but  think  of  remembering  their  names, 
or  of  even  saying,  "  How  do  you  do,  Mr.  Dhungee- 
bhoy  Framgee  Bhandarkar,"  or,  any  thing  like  it — 
more  especially  now,  fresh,  as  I  am,  from  the  monosyl- 
labic names,  the  Changs,  Engs,  and  "Wangs  of  China. 
But,  come  now,  go  back  with  me  to  Calcutta.  I 
"  lunched  out "  a  Sunday,  there,  and  drove  out  on  the 
fashionable  drive,  which  begins  Sunday,  at  5  p.  M., 
and  ends  at  church,  at  6  or  6-J  P.  M., — in  the  English 
church  in  Fort  William,  the  fashionable  Sunday  even- 
ing church,  where  sixteen  Hindoos  pull  the  punkah 
for  a  thousand  Christians,  or  more,  during  divine  ser- 
vice, and  thus  play  hide-and-go-seek  with  the  clergy- 
man's eyes  and  gestures,  or,  fast-and-loose  with  the 
notes  of  the  organists  and  boy  chanters — then,  went 
home  to  the  hotel,  the  service  being  over — packed  up 
— out  to  dine  at  8£  p.  M.,  and  off  in  the  cars  for  Cal- 
cutta, over  the  Hoogley,  at  12  (midnight).  I  enter 
into  all  this  minutim  to  show  you  how  hard  it  was 
"  to  do  Calcutta,"  in  the  brief  space  of  time  given  me 
there.  I  have  lost  Delhi,  and  Agra,  and  Cawnpore, 
and  Lucknow — and  Agra  is  a  real  loss,  because  of  the 


318  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

wonderful  tomb,  an  Indian  prince  erected  there  in 
memory  of  his  wife.  And  I  have  lost  Mohammedan 
mosques  and  Hindoo  temples  innumerable  ;  but  this 
world  is  big,  even  when  you  go  round  it  by  steam, 
and  life  is  not  long  enough  to  see  every  thing.  That 
unfortunate  threat  of  the  cyclone,  delaying  the  steam- 
er nearly  four  days  in  the  mouth  of  the  Hoogley,  lost 
me  India,  in  detail,  after  all  the  sacrifice  of  time,  and 
the  risk  of  health  run  to  see  the  detail,  and  compelled 
me  to  rush  on  to  Bombay  for  the  weekly  steamer  to 
Egypt,  as  if  I  had  been  shot  off  on  a  cannon-ball. 

The  Calcutta-Bombay  first-class  through  sleeping- 
car  is  a  luxury — (fare,  about  $70,  with  baggage) — 
but  not  quite  equal  to  our  "  silver  palaces,"  though 
with  some  few  advantages  over  them.  The  air  is 

dJ 

cooled  a  little,  when  the  cars  are  in  motion,  by  air 
forced  through  water  from  the  bottom  of  the  carf 
There  is  a  punkah,  which  the  motion  of  the  car  moves 
a  little  to  fan  you — a  very  uncertain  sort  of  fanning, 
though.  The  windows  of  the  car  do  not  slide  up  and 
down,  as  ours  do,  but  swing  on  hinges,  every  alternate 
window,  from  the  right  to  the  left,  and  vice  versa; 
and  you  arrange  them,  on  their  hinges,  to  the  reverse 
motion  of  the  car,  so  as  to  keep  out  the  dust,  and 
then  enjoy  the  air.  The  windows  are  of  colored  glass, 
to  shut  out  the  terrible  glare  of  the  sun.  The  water 
to  wash  with  is  forced  up  from  below  by  a  force  pump, 
as  you  need  it.  Over  the  windows,  one  and  all,  is  a 
wooden  projecting  shade  to  keep  off  the  sun,  and  to 
forbid  the  windows  from  opening  too  far.  These  are 


4 

THE  RUN  ACROSS  INDIA.  319 

advantages  over  our  cars;  but  there  are  no  sheets 
provided  for  beds,  no  pillow-cases  or  pillows,  no 
towels,  no  soap,  no  ice,  no  attendance  inside.  Out- 
side, at  stopping  places,  are  coolies  by  the  score,  and 
policemen ;  and  the  coolies,  from  skins  slung  over 
their  backs,  filled  with  water,  supply  it  to  you,  for 
drink  or  washing,  if  you  need  it,  or,  pull  the  punkah 
fan  to  cool  you,  if  you  desire  it.  There  is  a  great 
retinue  about  every  station — a  retinue  in  uniform — 
and  the  stations  are  often  very  costly,  as  at  Jubbal- 
pore  and  Allahabad. 

The  railroads  of  India  are  doing  more,  it  seems  to 
me,  for  the  conversion  of  Hindoos,  if  not  Moham- 
medans, than  all  the  missionaries;  and  if  the  Eng- 
lish government  here  would  give  a  little-  bit  of  prefer- 
ence to  the  Holy  Bible  over  the  Shastras,  and  Vedas, 
and  the  Korans  (only  a  little  bit),  I  should  have  some 
hope  that  the  railroads  would  do  what  the  mission- 
aries have,  for  now  two  centuries,  not  done — that  is, 
turn  the  people  from  the  error  of  their  ways.  The 
railroad  is  breaking  down  slowly  the  Hindoo  castes. 
The  proud,  and  lofty,  and  blue-blooded  Brahmin  must 
now  go  into  the  same  car  with  the  poor,  despised 
Pariah,  or  not  go  at  all.  The  hard-hearted  English 
conductor  pushes  in,  or  tumbles  in,  Pariah  on  top  of 
Brahmin,  and  Mohammedans  among  them  too.  Each 
wraps  up  his  garments  around  him,  and  preserves 
himself,  as  much  as  possible,  from  the  horrible  con- 
tamination ;  but,  when  once  holy  Brahmin  is  in  the 
car  with  polluted  Pariah,  go  he  must,  or  jump  out 


320  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

and  die.  The  railroad,  now,  has  become  here  the 
great  vein  of  life,  the  heart,  as  it  were,  of  the  geo- 
graphical anatomy  of  the  country ;  and  hence,  this 
mixed  circulation  of  all  these  various  religious  sects 
and  bloods  in  it,  is  amalgamating,  slowly,  despite 
religion,  caste,  and  creed.  And  this  is  happening  in 
a  land,  too,  where,  if  even  the  shadow  of  a  Christian, 
or  a  Mohammedan,  or  Pariah,  should  pass  over  the 
food  of  a  Brahmin,  he  would  not  eat  it,  or  over  his 
body,  he  would  feel  himself  polluted.  Railroads  are 
great  levellers  everywhere ;  but  railroads  in  India 
are  levelling  heathenism,  and  may,  by-and-by,  bring 
it  up  to  Christianity.  "What  conquers  caste  here, 
equalizes.  What  equalizes  heathenism  here,  strips  it 
of  its  pride,  selfishness,  exclusiveness,  etc.,  and  thus 
prepares  it  for  something  better  than  itself.  By  the 
way,  we  live  well  and  fare  well  on  the  rails  of  India. 
The  conductor  asks  us  miles  ahead,  "  if  we  breakfast, 
or  dine,"  here  or  there,  and  the  telegraph  is  used  to 
have  the  meal  all  ready  for  us,  the  prices  being  about 
the  same  as  in  the  United  States.  There  are  miles 
and  miles  of  telegraph,  now,  all  over  India,  from  the 
seas  to  the  mountains,  on  to  every  inland  military 
station,  and  the  rates  are  very  cheap.  I  can  thus  reach 
New  York,  from  Delhi  or  the  Punjaub,  in  less  than  a 
day ;  and  from  Bombay  there  are  three  distinct  lines 
to  Europe.  I  read  scraps  of  New  York  and  U.  S.  news 
every  day,  in  the  Bombay  journals,  which  are  about 
as  good  as  ours  in  New  York.  Indeed,  there  are 
British  journals,  and  journals  in  the  native  tongue, 


THE  RUN  ACROSS  INDIA.  321 

all  over  India.  The  press  is  as  free,  as  keen,  as  sharp, 
as  critical  here,  over  public  men,  and  on  public  meas- 
ures, as  in  London  or  New  York.  The  only  real  re- 
straint here,  on  the  absolute  government,  is  this  free 
press — save  and  except  those  deep-rooted  and  wide- 
spread free  foundations  of  English  law,  viz.,  the 
Habeas  Corpus  and  Magna  Charta. 

What  I  saw  at  night,  in  my  flight  across  the  In- 
dias,  is  a  "  bull "  you  will  not  expect  me  to  make,  but 
I  have  no  doubt  that,  as  I  slept,  I  slept  by  many  holy, 
as  well  as,  business  places — some  British  and  Dutch 
battlefields,  and  many  of  the  historical  sacred  spots 
of  Warren  Hastings  and  Lord  Olive ;  but,  as  I  have 
written  before,  one  can't  see  every  thing,  and  one 
must  sleep — what  a  pity ! — to  live.  The  Portuguese 
Catholic  priests  were  all  about  this  country  as  long 
ago  as  A.  D.  1540.  "When,  in  1632,  the  great  Mogul 
came  to  Hugly — a  place  I  passed  in  the  night — there 
were  2,000  souls  crowded  for  safety  on  board  one 
Portuguese  ship,  the  captain  of  which  blew  it  up, 
with  all  on  board,  rather  than  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  Mohammedans.  We  passed  Burdwan,  too,  the 
rajah  of  which  pays  two  millions  of  dollars  rental, 
for  his  estates,  to  the  British  government.  We  waked 
up  at  daybreak,  off  the  flat-land,  and  amid  hills,  if 
not  mountains,  in  the  coal  regions — for  the  supplies 
of  coal  are  as  abundant  here  as  in  Pennsylvania 
(U.  S.),  and  so  cheap,  that  in  Calcutta  it  is  sold  for 
about  five  dollars  a  ton.  Two  annas  per  day  (six 

cents)  is  the  price  of  labor  in  the  coal  mines,  and  on 
15 


322  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

the  railroads,  in  tliis  part  of  India — the  coolie  find- 
ing himself,  in  clothes  (little  or  none),  and  in  food, 
rice  and  vegetables.  But  there  is  little  or  no  work 
in  him,  unless  driven.  Every  thing  is  carried  in 
baskets — on  the  head — coal,  dirt,  etc.  The  wheel- 
barrow was  tried  in  railroad  building,  and  the 
scoop  ;  but  the  native  did  not  take  to  these  novelties, 
and  would  try  to  carry  the  wheelbarrow  on  his  head, 
and  no  artificial  scoop  or  dredging  power  was  so 
cheap  as  the  power  of  perpendicular  bone  and  muscle. 
Man  was  cheaper  than  steam,  or  cheaper  than  ma- 
chine. There  is  no  patent  right  so  cheap  in  India  as 
the  God-made  machine,  called  man.  Nevertheless, 
there  is  no  slavery  here.  It  is  a  free  country.  Every 
man  owns  his  own  bones  and  brains.  But,  in  con- 
tradiction to  all  this,  some  of  you  will  remember — 
nay,  not  longer  than  1830 — when  even  muslins  for 
our  shirts  c'ame  from  India,  while  now,  the  far  cost- 
lier labor,  but  powerful  loom  machinery  of  England, 
has  nearly  destroyed  the  manufacture  here,  and  sub- 
stituted in  its  stead  immense  importations  of  all  sorts 
of  drygoods  therefor.  The  cashmere  and  India 
shawls,  and  some  few  objects  of  art  manufactured 
now,  alone  survive  the  competition  of  dearer  labor 
and  cheaper  machinery  in  England  and  America. 
Reconcile  this  logic,  so  contradictory.  I  can't  stop 
to  do  it  now. 

Then,  we  came  down  from  the  hills  into  the  level, 
beautiful,  alluvial,  broad-spread  plains  of  the  Ganges, 
where  for  miles  and  miles  there  is  little  to  see  but 


THE  RUN  ACROSS  INDIA.  323 

highly-cultivated  patches  of  the  rich  soil,  and  myriads 
of  bullocks,  and  tropical  vegetation  of  all  kinds  fas- 
cinating to  the  eye.  The  land  seems  full  of  people, 
and  capable  of  supporting  any  number  of  them.  But 
the  eye  soon  wearies  with  vegetable  wealth  and  flow- 
ers everlasting.  One  covets  a  mountain,  or  a  water- 
fall, and  soon  feels,  in  this  hot  climate,  that  a  poor 
life  on  the  hills  is  better  than  a  rich  life  on  the  ever- 
lasting plains.  The  people  on  these  plains  have  no 
need  of  clothes,  no  real  need  of  work,  for  it  is  ever 
hot  enough  to  run  naked,  and  the  plantain  and  other 
tropical  food  would  feed  them,  even  if  the  country 
were  a  jungle.  Nevertheless,  the  cultivation  of  the 
country  shows  great  industry.  The  farmers,  just 
now,  are  putting  in  some  new  crop,  and  the  plough — 
the  earth-scraper,  I  had  better  call  it— with  the  bul- 
locks pulling  it,  covers,  more  or  less,  all  parts  of  the 
now  living  country.  The  Ganges,  which  but  the 
other  day  covered  every  thing  with  its  waters,  has 
now  gone  to  rest,  and  left  behind  its  fat  treasures  of 
deposits  to  enrich  the  land.  .  .  . 

But  up,  and  on,  or  I  shall  never  get  to  Bombay  1 
What  a  pity  I  could  not  stop  at  that  holy  Hindoo 
city  of  Benares,  with  her  -one  thousand  temples 
"  wholly  given  to  idolatry."  A  half  a  million  of  gods 
are  said  to  be  worshipped  here !  Thousands  of  mon- 
keys there  are,  in,  and  about  one  temple — fine,  fat, 
well-bred  monkeys,  from  the  venerable  patriarch  to 
the  babe  in  its  mother's  arms — all  holy,  holy,  holy, 
and  not  to  be  desecrated  by  unholy  Christian  hands  ! 


324:  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

The  Hindoo  venerates  the  ape,  because  of  some  ser- 
vices, somewhere,  some  smart  monkey  did  the  Hin- 
doos in  their  wars  with  the  Mohammedans,  before 
their  surrender  to  the  Great  Mogul.  In  the  shades 
of  the  second  evening  we  passed  Mirzapoor,  where, 
once  was  the  great  temple  of  the  Thugs  of  India,  at 
which  they  worshipped,  before  they  went  to  waylay, 
rob,  and  murder  the  traveller.  The  Thugs  are  ex- 
tirpated, now,  everywhere,  and  travelling  is  safer  in 
India  than  in  any  other  Eastern  country.  It  was 
midnight  when  we  reached  Allahabad  (the  city  of 
Allah,  it  means),  where  join  the  Jumna  and  the  Gan- 
ges, and  another  great  river,  the  Hindoos  say,  that 
flows  direct  from  heaven,  which,  however,  is  allowed 
to  be  invisible  to  mortal  eye.  Certain,  there  is  no 
railroad  bridge  over  it.  When  a  Hindoo  pilgrim  ar- 
rives at  Allahabad,  he  sits  down  at  the  bank  of  the 
river,  and  has  his  head  and  body  shaved,  so  that  each 
hair  may  fall  into  the  water,  the  sacred  writers  prom- 
ising him  one  million  of  years'  residence  in  heaven 
for  every  hair  thus  deposited  !  I  did  not  drop  a  hair, 
but  thought  of  it,  in  the  moonlight,  though  many  a 
Christian  does,  as  he  passes,  so  I  am  told,  in  order  to 
be  on  the  sure  side. 

These  Hindoos,  nevertheless,  are  not  such  fools  as 
these  superstitions  would  seem  to  indicate  them  to  be. 
The  English,  here,  pronounce  them  to  be  far  the  su- 
periors of  the  Mohammedans,  who  do  believe  in  God, 
though  in  Mohammed  as  his  prophet.  They  have  more 
intelligence  than  the  Mohammedans ;  often  educate 


THE  RUN  ACROSS  INDIA.  325 

themselves  to  a  high  standard  of  learning ;  often  hold 
offices  under  the  British,  and  oftener,  are  employed  as 
bright  men  in  practical  business  life.  It  is  noted  in 
history  that  when  the  Mohammedans,  the  better  sol- 
diers in  their  day,  conquered  the  Hindoos,  the  Mo- 
hammedan chiefs  had  ever  to  employ  the  Hindoos, 
in  large  numbers,  successfully  to  govern  the  country. 
The  Mohammedans  were  only  soldiers,  while  the 
Hindoos  were  the  better  civilians.  They  growl  and 
grumble,  now,  under  British  rule,  as  the  British 
prefer  the  Hindoos  in  official  employ ;  and,  just  at 
this  moment,  a  fanatical  sect  among  them,  the  Waha- 
bees,  are  suspected  of  having  employed  the  fanatic 
who  recently  assassinated  the  Chief  Justice  at  Cal- 
cutta. 

From  Allahabad  to  Jubbalpore  is  the  line  of  rail 
— 228  miles — recently  opened,  connecting  Calcutta 
and  Bombay,  without  the  intervention  of  bullock 
carts,  or  any  other  like  unearthly  conveyance.  Dark- 
ness came  over  us  on  the  Ganges  plains ;  but  day- 
light opens  on  us  in  a  rude,  rough  country,  among 
hills  and  mountains,  with  a  sharp,  biting  air,  where 
two  overcoats  were  not  uncomfortable  to  sleep  under. 
"We  have  been  going  through,  we  are  told,  a  land  of 
tigers,  leopards,  bears,  sambuk,  spotted  deer,  ante- 
lopes, etc.,  etc.  None  of  them  jumped  into  the  cars, 
or  disturbed  our  slumbers.  Hills  are  on  each  side  of 
us,  and  now,  we  are  winding  at  their  base,  and  then, 
through  many  a  sharp  curve  and  steep  incline,  we 
climb  and  wind  our  way  through  scenery  nearly 


326  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

as  picturesque  as  seen  on  the  Pacific  road  in  Utah. 
Bold  headlands  often  strut  out  like  mighty  bastions, 
the  red  strata  laid  bare  at  the  top,  and  looking  like  a 
bluff  point  crowned  by  a  fortress. 

Jubbalpore,  the  end  of  the  Great  East  India  Rail- 
way, and  the  beginning  of  the  Great  Peninsular  and 
Oriental  rail,  we  reached  in  season  for  quite  a  sumptu- 
ous breakfast.  A  thousand  feet  up  in  the  air,  it  is  not 
hot  at  early  morning.  It  is  a  pretty-looking  place,  full 
of  English,  with  an  English  church.  We  enter  here 
the  valley  of  the  Nerbudda,  wild,  woody,  and  un- 
cultivated. Then  we  go  on,  miles  and  miles,  crossing 
three  rivers  on  costly  bridges,  before  we  are  done 
with  the  tributaries  of  the  Nerbudda.  We  pass  Bur- 
hampur,  where  they  manufacture  muslins,  flowered 
silks,  and  brocades.  Then,  on,  and  on,  through  parts 
of  Scindia — not  far  from  spacious  Buddhist  cavern 
temples,  hewn  in  the  solid  rock  of  amygdaloid,  and 
thus  indestructible  by  Mohammedan  iconoclasts. 
The  great  Aurungzebe  figured  here,  and  about  here. 
Then  we  come  to  the  Western  Ghauts — not  our 
Spanish- American  canons,  but  passes,  over  hills,  or 
mountains.  Shady  forests,  rippling  streams,  lofty 
hills,  and  smiling  dells,  all  make  the  country  pretty. 
The  passage  of  the  Ghauts  is  one  of  the  magnificent 
works  of  modern  engineering.  The  rail  line  passes 
through  13  tunnels,  over  6  viaducts,  one,  250  yards 
long  and  288  feet  high,  solid  work  of  rock  and  iron. 
There  are  15  bridges  and  62  culverts  in  three  Ghaut 
passes  here.  The  road  winds  and  curves  around 


THE  RUN  ACROSS  INDIA.  327 

precipices  like  the  worm  of  a  screw.  We  were  an 
hour  going  10  miles ;  but,  when  we  began  to  descend 
down  the  sea  face  toward  the  Indian  Ocean,  we  flew 
at  the  rate  of  40  or  50  miles  the  hour,  through  wooded 
gorges,  by  streams,  cascades,  forests  of  palms,  tall 
teak  trees,  groves,  and  flowers,  till  we  reached  the 
swamp  level  of  the  sea,  on  which  we  go  into  Bombay, 
and  again  snuff  the  salt  ocean  air. 
:  -#  Enter  Byculla,  the  chief  station,  near  most  of  the 
hotels — but  I  go  farther  on,  into  the  heart  of  the  city, 
where,  on  the  old  Fort  ground,  is  the  Esplanade 
Hotel — a  hotel  built  on  purpose  for  a  hotel,  not 
sprung  from  patched-up  houses,  as  are  most  hotels 
— a  hotel  of  iron  sent  out  from  England,  five  or  six 
of  the  loftiest  stories  high,  over  every  room  in  which 
runs  a  current  of  air,  with  this  disadvantage,  that 
what  you  say  or  do  in  one  room,  is  certain  to  be 
known  in  its  neighbor  room.  The  depot  scenes  of 
travellers'  ,exit  are  nearly  alike  the  whole  world  over 
(New  York  city  excepted).  There,  surround  you, 
cry  for  you,  under  discipline,  though,  the  drivers  of 
bullock  carts  (two  bullocks  drawing  at  times  rather 
a  pretty  vehicle  on  springs),  shigrams  (a  sort  of  rock- 
away,  closely  shutting  up,  to  keep  off  the  sun),  and 
buggies  ;  and  there  are  palanquins  (a  sort  of  shut-up 
bed  to  stretch  out  on),  with  four  hamals,  or  six  (cool- 
ies), to  carry  you  on  their  shoulders,  if  you  wish. 
Never  was  a  hotel,  with  baths,  etc.,  more  welcome. 
All  the  waters  of  the  Indian  Ocean  can  scarcely  wash 
one  off  after  such  a  flight,  as  mine,  overland ;  but,  I 


328  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

am  up,  "  redeemed,  regenerated,  disenthralled,"  from 
dirt,  high  up  in  the  air,  in  a  balconied  room,  over- 
looking the  city,  its  suburbs  and  its  seas,  and  never 
in  better  health,  though  in  India,  and  hot  as  it  is 
in  India. 


LETTEE  XXXY. 

'  SIGHTS  IN  AND  ABOUT  BOMBAY. 

Bombay.— What  it  is  as  a  City.— Calcutta  the  Court;  Bombay  the  Mart.— New  In- 
fluences of  the  Suez  Canal. — The  Treasures  of  India  here. — Cashmere  Shawls. — 
The  Bombay  Fashionables  on  a  Drive. — The  Parsees. — The  way  they  don't  bury 
their  Dead.— India  Gods.— Where  manufactured.— The  Temples  of  India.— The 
Wonderful  "Elephanta."— Dining  Out  in  the  East.— The  Koute  to  Persia  and 
Aden. — The  Census  and  Exports  of  Bombay. — Extent  of  Bailroads  in  India. — 
Sound  Banks  and  a  good  Currency. 

BOMBAY,  November  4,  1871. 

BOMBAY  is  a  very  respectable  city,  witlf  over 
800,000  inhabitants.  Where  they  are  put,  though, 
I  cannot  see ;  but  it  is  a  stretched-out  city,  with  long 
arms,  and  very  long  legs,  and  "  considerable  of  a 
body."  It  is  as  flat  as  a  prairie,  excepting  Malabar 
Hill,  or  a  promontory  where  the  Quality  live  and 
drive,  and  two  other  little  places  of  no  great  note, 
unless  the  Government  House  makes  the  Parell  Hill  a 
notability,  and,  of  course,  out  here  it  does.  A  Gov- 
ernor in  the  East  is,  everywhere,  the  great  "  swell." 
Isn't  he  the  representative  of  the  Queen's  majesty  ? 
Of  course  he  is ;  and  hence,  Sir  Edward  Fitzgerald, 
the  Governor  of  the  great  Bombay  Presidency, 
makes  Parell  Hill  a  great  notability — for  he  is  the 
light  set  on  that  hill.  Bombay  has  a  fresh,  lively, 
clean  look,  that  reminds  one  of  some  of  our  rich 
mushroom  "Western  cities.  The  merchant  princes  do 


330  -A-  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

not  generally  do  business  under  their  household  es- 
tablishments, as,  often,  elsewhere  in  the  East,  but  live 
out  in  villas,  amid  the  cooling  breezes  of  Malabar. 
Calcutta  is  courtly;  Bombay  is  mercantile.  There 
is  great  rivalry  between  the  two  cities.  One  is  the 
Court,  the  ten,  as  well  as  the  town,  while  the  other 
is  gathering  up,  and  taking  away,  the  trade  and  com- 
merce of  Calcutta,  because  here  is  the  nearest  outlet, 
by  the  rail,  of  India  to  England,  and  for  all  the  ships 
on  the  seas.  The  French  canal  through  the  Isthmus 
of  Suez,  too,  that  the  British  merchants  so  long  bit- 
terly opposed,  in  the  fear  that  the  French  would  thus 
monopolize  the  commerce  of  India,  is  becoming  the 
greatest  boon  to  Bombay;  for  here  now,  without 
bulk  breaking,  or  sailing  around  the  Cape,  come 
steamers  from  all  parts  of  England,  and  from  Trieste 
and  Brindisi,  and  from  Genoa,  Naples,  Marseilles, 
and  the  whole  Mediterranean.  Bombay  is  thus 
brought  into  close  contiguity  with  all  Europe,  while 
Calcutta  is  all  the  way  around  the  Island  of  Ceylon, 
and  up  the  Bay  of  Bengal.  Bombay  says,  too,  she 
is  "  healthier  than  Calcutta."  Calcuttians  deny  that. 
"  Our  pure  rivers,  now,  from  the  rectified  Ganges, 
and  our  sewers,"  they  say,  "  make  Calcutta  one  of 
the  healthiest  cities  in  the  world."  (The  world,  how- 
ever, will  not  believe  that  for  many  years  to  come; 
for  the  most  that  is  known  of  Calcutta  in  the  world 
is,  "the  Black  Hole"  of  history,  there.)  Bombay 
says,  "  Look  at  our  magnificent  harbor,  where  whole 
navies  can  ride  in  safety ;  the  entrance  to,  and  the 


SIGHTS  IN  AND  ABOUT   BOMBAY.  331 

exit  from,  which  is  easy,  while  the  Hoogley  Biver, 
the  entrance  to  Calcutta,  is  dangerous  and  costly  in. 
pilotage,  and  ever  giving  trouble  to  all  the  ships  that 
go  in  there."  Calcutta  is  silent  on  that  theme.  The 
Suez  Canal  navigation  is  concentrating  here,  directly, 
the  steamships  of  Austria — Russia  (from  Odessa),  and 
Italy,  as  well  as  France — nay,  perhaps  more  and 
more,  the  direct  trade  from  London  and  Liverpool 
(and  scattering  it  all  over  Europe) ;  but,  nevertheless, 
all  are  to  be  to  the  profit  of  Bombay.  • 

Bombay  is  the  mart  of  India  manufactures,  from 
the  far  up-country  of  the  Indus  down  to  Madras ;  and 
hence,  one  has  to  shop  here,  of  course — but  shopping 
is  easier  in  India  than  in  New  York,  for  the  things 
come  to  you,  not  you  to  the  shops.  On  the  front  of 
our  hotel  veranda,  were  spread  out  the  treasures  of 
India  —  boxes  of  sandal- wood,  ivory,  shell,  teak, 
carved  and  lacquered — work  in  wool,  in  muslin,  in 
silver  and  gold,  embroideries,  etc. ;  but  the  Indian  is 
no  match,  now,  as  a  manufacturer,  with  the  Chinese 
or  Japanese,  while  the  European  has  stolen  almost 
all  his  arts  from  him— all,  perhaps,  except  the  Cash- 
mere and  Indian  shawls.  The  Indian  embroiders 
yet  cheaply,  on  European  fabrics,  more  cheaply  than 
the  European  can,  and,  hence,  commands  a  market 
for  some  of  his  fabrics.  The  wealth  of  shawls  here, 
however,  rather  startles  the  European  or  American, 
even  one  accustomed  to  the  high  prices  of  New  York 
or  Paris.  There  was  one  pair  of  shawls  noted,  for 
which  the  Indian  dealer  wanted  5,000  rupees,  each 


332  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

— that  is,  $2,500.  They  were  very  long,  very,  very 
fine,  but  would  not  quite  go  through  a  finger-ring,  as, 
some  say,  some  of  the  very  finest  will.  Prices  of  the 
good  cashmere  vary  from  $150  to  $500  and  $1,000 ; 
but  few,  or  none,  of  the  latter  are  sold,  except  to 
royalty.  Months  and  months  of  labor  are  spent  upon 
some  of  these  cashmeres,  more  than  upon  the  laces 
of  Belgium ;  and  the  work  upon  them  is  immense. 
The  "  wool "  of  which  they  are  made  is  the  under 
wool,  or  hair,  of  the  goat,  as  of  the  under  hair  of  the 
seal,  and  of  the  very  finest  quality.  Moore,  the  poet, 
has  given  the  world  his  fancy  views  of  the  vale  of 
Cashmere ;  but  his  fancy  is  very  near  the  fact  in  his 
poetic  description  of  that  beautiful  region,  which  is 
not  yet  British,  though  under  the  influence  and  sway 
of  Britons. 

There  are  many  things  to  see  in  Bombay,  but  all 
cannot  now  be  seen,  lively  as  I  have  been.  I  went 
to  the  evening  drive  on  Malabar  Hill,  but,  in  dash 
and  crash  here,  there  is  no  comparison  with  the  Cal- 
cutta fashionable  drive.  The  red  and  yellow  of  the 
turbans,  and  of  the  liveries,  arrest  one's  attention. 
Sometimes  it  would  seem  as  if  all  the  scarlet  in  the 
country  was  afloat  in  Bombay.  There  are  fellows, 
with  golden  turbans,  swelling  out  a  foot,  almost,  on 
either  side  the.  head — but  bare-legged,  and  bare- 
footed, with  all  that.  Bare  legs  is  a  part  of  the  fash- 
ionable livery  of  India.  We  see  on  this  drive  rich 
Parsees,  out  with  their  equipages;  and  some  rich 
Hindoos,  too.  There  is  a  Parsee  theatre  here,  in 


SIGHTS  IN  AND  ABOUT  BOMBAY.  333 

Bombay,  but  it  is  too  hot  to  shut  one's-self  up  in  hot 
walls,  these  hot  nights.  The  Hindoos  have  not  yet 
reached  theatrical  refinements;  but  their  festivals, 
and  show  festivals,  too,  are  innumerable.  There  is  a 
dreadful  sight,  at  times,  here  in  Bombay,  even  to  an 
old  traveller  like  myself,  who  has  reached  the  nil 
admirari  of  Horace  almost  to  perfection — and  that 
is,  a  Parsee  funeral — a  Parsee — interment  ?  No ! — a 
burial?  No! — a  Hindoo  incremation,  burning  up 
of  the  body  ?  No !  But — I  do  not  know  what  to 
call  it,  and  hence,  must  describe  it.  Parsees  die,  of 
course,  and  are  never  buried,  like  Christians,  or  Mo- 
hammedans, or  burnt  like  the  Hindoos,  but  taken  to  a 
high  tower,  on  Malabar  Hill,  soon  after  death,  and 
there,  naked,  on  an  open  grate,  left  to  be  eaten  up 
by  the  vultures ;  and  their  bones,  when  the  flesh  is 
gone,  drop  through  the  grate  into  a  vault  below! 
The  vultures  have  learned  to  snuff  a  Parsee  funeral 
in  the  distance,  and  hover  over  it,  and  croak  about 
it ;  and  no  sooner  is  the  corpse  left  on  the  grating, 
than  they  enter  upon  the  scramble  for  the  flesh  that 
is  on  it!  They  tell  me  —  I  don't  vouch  for  this, 
though — that  at  times,  in  the  fashionable  quarters 
of  Malabar  Hill,  on  a  veranda,  is  dropped  a  stray 
finger,  or  toe,  that  the  vulture  has  found  rather  in- 
digestible. The  Bombayans  don't  seem  to  think 
much  of  all  this.  It  strikes  me  as  the  strangest, 
most  startling  of  things  I  have  yet  to  record  in 
all  my  ramblings. 

Long  ago  have  I  given  up  seeing  heathen  temples. 


334  A  SEVEN   MONTHS'   RUN. 

One  wearies,  after  a  while,  in  Europe,  even,  of  cathe- 
drals, to  say  nothing  of  churches ;  but  in  the  East  I 
have  seen  here  so  many  gods  (they  make  them,  by 
the  way,  in  Manchester,  now,  for  export  to  India), 
that  I  had  resolved  never  again  to  enter  Buddhist  or 
Hindoo  temple.  But,  on  an  island  about  six  miles 
from  Bombay,  is  one  which  has  so  great  a  name — 
that  is,  is  so  famous — that  I  went  with  a  pleasant 
party  in  a  sail-boat,  to  have  a  luncheon  in  it,  and  a 
good  time  generally.  The  temple  is  called  the  Cave 
Temple  of  Elephanta.  The  Hindoos  picked  out  a 
romantic  island  for  their  great  temple,  and  in  a  solid 
rock,  under  two  hills,  cut  out  a  temple — with  what 
instruments,  who  knows? — and  how  long  ago,  who 
can  tell  ?  The  work  is  a  wonder,  almost  as  much  of  a 
wonder  as  the  Pyramids,  and  more  than  the  Sphynx. 
We  go  up  to  it  from  the  water  about  half  a  mile  on 
stone  steps,  a  stone-ascending  pavement,  the  avenue 
walled  with  stone  on  both  sides.  Two  ponderous 
pillars  and  two  pilasters,  forming  three  openings 
under  a  steep  rock,  overhung  by  brushwood,  first 
meet  one's  eyes.  The  great  temple  is  one  hundred 
and  thirty-three  feet  broad,  one  hundred  and  thirty 
and  a  half  feet  long,  and  twenty  feet  high,  the  roof 
being  supported  by  ranges  of  massive  pillars,  with 
ornamental  capitals  of  varied  designs,  all  hewn  out 
of  the  solid  rock.  Opposite  the  entrance  is  a  gigan- 
tic bust  with  three  heads,  supposed  to  represent  the 
Hindoo  Trinity.  There  are  two  smaller  temples,  one 
on  each  side  of  the  principal  one.  There  are  now  no 


SIGHTS  IN  AND   ABOUT  BOMBAY.  335 

priests  in  this  temple,  no  worship.  It  is  given  up 
to  Bombay  pio-nic  parties,  and  visitors  eat,  drink, 
and  make  merry  in  it.  We  planted  our  table  in  the 
opening,  with  a  lake-like  view  of  the  water  before  us, 
that  reminded  me  of  West  Point ;  and  the  feast  the 
coolies  brought  down  to  us  from  the  city,  we  enjoyed 
with  a  zest,  in  the  cool  air  of  the  temple  cave,  with  an 
appetite  inspired  by  the  little  boat  voyage.  If  any 
reader  of  mine  should  ever  go  there,  let  him  remem- 
ber he  must  mount  on  coolies'  backs,  to  be  carried  to 
and  from  his  boat,  so  shallow  are  the  waters  on  the 
shore.  I  would  like  to  tell  you  of  the  purposes  of 
two  of  the  altars  in  this  temple,  but  I  can  only  tell 
verbally,  never  on  paper. 

Were  you  ever  invited  out  to  dinner,  accepting 
the  invitation,  and  not  knowing  where  to  go,  and  not 
knowing  enough  of  Hindostanee  to  ask  anybody  ? 
Well,  that  was  my  condition  the  day  of  the  pic-nio 
—dinner,  8£  p.  M.,  place  three  miles  off — and  how 
was  I  to  get  there  ?  Pantomime  did  the  job.  Fin- 
gers are  about  as  good  to'  talk  with  as  tongues,  if  you 
have  only  one  word  to  work  on,  and  that,  I  had — ex- 
cellent Hindostanee.  The  Tower  of  Babel — plague 
on  it — has  been  the  cause  of  more  trouble  than  any 
thing  in  this  world,  except  Mother  Eve's  defalcation. 
I  pantomimed  into  my  dinner  party  at  9  r.  M. — a 
hungry,  half-angry,  but  very  polite  company  await- 
ing. Europeans  live  here,  as  in  China  and  Japan, 
like  princes.  If  they  don't  soon  check  their  extrava- 
gance, the  cheaper-living  Germans,  and  the  cheaper- 


336  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

yet  Parsees  and  Chinese,  will  root  them  out  of  the 
trade  of  the  country.  To  go  to  a  dinner-party,  in 
woollens — in  a  fashionable  bob-tailed  woollen  coat, 
with  a  well-lined  vest  and  pantaloons,  made  for  the 
winter  in  New  York,  the  thermometer  there  often  in 
the  neighborhood  of  zero — is  not  exactly  comfortable 
in  Bombay,  where  the  thermometer  wanders  in  the 
nineties ;  but  such  is  the  dictum  of  Fashion  in  Cal- 
cutta and  Bombay;  —  and  in  woollen,  and  white 
choker,  you  have  to  stand  it,  if  you  will  dine  out 
with  other  people.  They  do  say,  but  I  did  not  see 
it,  that  in  pity  the  master  of  the  feast  sometimes 
offers  you  a  linen  jacket  in  exchange  for  your  woollen 
coat,  which  said  jacket,  by  previous  arrangement, 
you  bring  from  home  with  you ;  but  this  was  not  our 
case,  as  we  ate,  drank,  and  made  merry  only  in  the 
woollens  —  calmed,  however,  if  not  cooled,  by  the 
blessed  punkah. 

But  I  am  off  this  evening  to  Aden,  Suez,  Alexan- 
dria, Brindisi — twenty-one  days,  though,  yet  from 
London,  in  one  continuous,' everlasting  steamer  mo- 
tion. I  don't  want  to  go  home,  and  I  do  want  to  go 
home ;  and  in  this  verbal,  there  is  no  mental,  contradic- 
tion. The  more  a  traveller  goes,  the  more  he  pants  to 
go.  My  mouth  is  watering  for  a  nice  little  run  on  the 
Persian  Gulf,  in  a  steamer,  from  Bombay  to  Bussora, 
and  thence,  by  steamer,  on  to  Bagdad,  in  Persia, 
where  close  by,  I  could  see  what  is  left  of  Babylon 
and  Nineveh,  and  go  then  up  the  Euphrates,  to  Alep- 
po and  Alexandretta,  on  the  Mediterranean,  where 


SIGHTS  IN  AND  ABOUT  BOMBAY.  337 

the  French  steamers  toifch.  If  I  were  a  free  man,  I 
would  go  home  that  way. 

DISTANCES.  MILES. 

Bombay  to  Bussora  (by  steam) 1,915 

Bussora  to  Bagdad  (by  steam) 500 

Bagdad  to  Alexandretta 900 

— on  which  latter  route  there  is  steam  on  the  Eu- 
phrates to  Mescany,  which  is  fifteen  hours'  ride  from 
Aleppo,  and  Aleppo  is  eighty-four  miles  from  Alex- 
andretta. 

Before  I  leave  Bombay,  however,  let  me  add  on 
more  statistics. 

The  census  of  Bombay,  in  1864,  showed  the  fol- 
lowing population : 

Hindoos 585,968 

Mohammedans 145,800 

Parsees 49,201 

Europeans 8,415 

Jews 2,872 

All  other  races 24,226 

Exports  the  last  year  from  Bombay $126,454,000 

Imports 81,729,000 

These  exports  are  increasing,  in  consequence  of 
Bombay's  being  made  the  railroad,  as  well  as  steam- 
boat centre.  Cotton  is  the  chief  article,  and  our 
prices  current  of  that  article  in  America  are  daily 
telegraphed  here.  There  are  thirteen  lines  of  steam- 
ers connected  with  this  port— four  from  Europe,  the 
great  P.  &  O.  (English),  once  a  week ;  the  Austrian 
Lloyds,  from  Trieste ;  the  Italian,  from  Yenice ;  and 
the  Messagerie,  from  Marseilles — the  three  last  run- 


338  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

ning  through  the  Suez  Carial,  where  the  P.  &  O. 
(English)  will  soon  have  to  go,  or  else  lose  most  of  the 
freight  and  passenger  trade. 

There  have  been  four  hundred  million  dollars  ex- 
pended upon  the  India  railroads,  now  over  five  thou- 
sand miles  in  extent,  and  increasing.  They  reach 
the  Indus  now,  and  are  soon  going  up  to  Cashmere 
and  Caubul. 

The  currency  of  India  is  excellent.  The  banks 
are  now  in  high  credit,  and  their  notes  circulate  all 
over  the  land  at  par,  being  receivable  for  Govern- 
ment dues.  The  rupee  (fifty  cents)  is  the  silver  coin. 
There  is  a  gold  coin,  but  it  is  hoarded  as  soon  as 
issued. 

Doubtless,  you  will  smile  when  you  read  these 
letters  from  India,  naturally  enough  wondering  how, 
in  a  single  week  in  India,  I  could  pick  up  so  much 
material,  all  the  while  being,  as  I  have  been,  on  the 
wing.  When  a  traveller  reads  every  thing  he  can  lay 
his  hands  on  in  a  country,  and  is  surrounded  by  in- 
telligent men  who  can  answer  all  his  questions,  he 
learns  a  great  deal  in  a  very  little  while.  I  have 
been  thinking,  since  I  came  here,  that  one  might  stay 
at  home,  and  thus  travel,  with  photographic  views 
only  of  the  countries  he  would  visit ;  but  the  diffi- 
culty there  is  the  geography.  One  can  get  the  geog- 
raphy of  a  country  in  his  head  only  by  running  into 
it,  or  over  it.  This  I  have  done  in  India ;  and  hence, 
have  gathered  up  so  much  in  so  little  time.  The 
world  is  too  big,  and  life  is  too  short,  to  go  and  stay 


SIGHTS  IN  AND  ABOUT  BOMBAY.  339 

everywhere.  Skim,  fly,  read,  study,  hear,  question, 
keep  eyes  and  ears  all  wide  open,  and,  with  the  geog- 
raphy of  a  country  well  in  your  head,  you  can  un- 
derstand its  commerce,  and  trade,  and  life,  pretty 
well  afterward. 


LETTEtt  XXXVI. 

ON  THE  ARABIAN  AND  BED  SEAS. 

Lascars,  Africans,  Chinese,  Portuguese,  and  Englishmen,  managing  a  Steamer. — 
The  Infernal  Sun  of  India. — The  Reservoir  of  Surplus  Englishmen. — How  India 
exhausts  European  Life. — The  British  Soldier's  Luxurious  Life  in  Peace. — The 
Native  Troops  of  India. — The  Grip  of  England  upon  India. — Effect  of  Christian- 
ity upon  Hindoos  and  Mohammedans.— The  Hindoo  Pantheon  and  833,000,000 
Gods. — The  Brahmin  Castes. — Bankers  below  Barbers. — Arabs  and  their  Ocean 
Craft. — Railroad  from  London  to  Bombay.— Time,  Five  Days. — England  encore, 
toujours,  forever  and  ever. — The  Red-Hot  Red  Sea. — This  Unfinished  Part  of 
the  Earth. — Aden  the  Fag  End  of  Creation. —  The  Divers  of  Aden. —  Strings 
of  Camels  Led  by  their  Noses. — The  Proper  Time  to  Travel  in  the  East. — Fares 
and  Distances. 

ON  THE  ARABIAN  SEA,  November  7,  1871. 
I  AM  on  board  the  steamer  Sumatra,  bound  to 
Aden  (1,664  miles  from  Bombay),  and  to  Suez  (1,308 
from  Aden,  distance  in  all,  2,972  miles).  I  have  two 
weeks  (the  time  of  the  voyage)  to  read,  write,  and 
think  in.  The  steamer  is  one  of  the  first-class  of  the 
P.  &  O.  line,  and  nearly  all  the  passengers  we  have, 
about  thirty,  are  used-up  Englishmen,  on  their  way 
home  to  recruit,  or,  English  women,  faded  in  India, 
and  white  and  pale,  and  going  home  to  get  red  and 
rosy  again,  with  some  dozen  children,  the  palest, 
sickliest,  puniest  little  doll  babies,  that  Indian  nurses, 
men  nurses  as  well  as  women  nurses,  ever  had  to  care 
for.  There  are  about  one  hundred  and  thirty  in  all 
of  the  crew ;  Lascars  for  sailors  (it  takes  three  of 
them,  at  least,  to  do  one  Englishman's  work),  negroes, 


ON  THE  ARABIAN  AND  BED  SEAS.  34-1 

from  the  coast  of  Africa  as  firemen,  red-hot  black 
fellows,  who,  born  under  Africa's  fiery  sun,  now 
stand  England's  red-hot  coal,  even  down  in  the  third 
story  of  a  ship,  where  no  air  ever  gets,  except  through 
the  windsail ;  Portuguese  (mixed  breeds)  for  servants 
in  the  cabin;  Chinamen  for  carpenters  and  other 
like  smart  work ;  and  a  few  Europeans,  for  brains, 
as  captain,  quartermaster,  engineers,  clerks,  doctor, 
etc.,  etc.  Take  us  all  in  all,  we  are  a  very  motley 
set ;  and  considering  that  the  most  of  us  have  been 
fried  out  during  the  summer,  in  India,  or  Ceylon,  or 
China,  the  wonder  is,  that  there  is  stamina  enough  in 
any  of  us  to  eat  and  to  drink ;  but  there  is,  for  all, 
save  the  pale,  washed-out  ladies,  do  duty  regularly 
at  table  three  times  per  day,  if  not  four,  or  more. 
The  sea  is  as  smooth  as  a  lake — this  is  not  the  raging 
monsoon  season — and  we  make  our  230,  240,  250,  or 
260  miles  per  day,  without  trouble,  but  able  to  do 
more,  if  consistent  with  the  time  regulations  of  the 
company,  that  has  so  to  manage  as  to  bring  in  a 
China  steamer  at  the  same  time  with  a  Bombay,  and 
Australian  steamer,  too,  and  to  meet  those  coming 
from  Southampton  (Eng.),  and  Brindisi  (Italy),  to 
Alexandria.  But,  though  we  eat  and  drink  freely, 
there  is  scarcely  life  enough  left  in  the  passengers  to 
talk.  All  are  as  solemn  as  owls.  The  starch  is  out 
of  most  of  us.  There  is  no  singing,  dancing,  and 
making  merry,  as  among  the  Galle-Calcutta  passen- 
gers, fresh  from  England — while  now,  the  chatter  is 
of  the  infernal  sun  of  India,  the  fevers,  the  jungles, 


342  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

the  bungalows  (houses),  only  kept  cool  by  the  pun- 
kahs, and  with  grass  doors,  ever  kept  wet  by  a  con- 
stant throw  of  water  on  them  from  the  coolies.  What 
a  life  Englishmen  thus  lead  in  India,  for  gold,  or 
glory,  or  what  is  more  likely,  from  inability  to  live 
at  home,  and,  therefore,  under  the  necessity  of  earn- 
ing a  livelihood  abroad ! 

India  now,  I  see,  is  what  our  great  West  is — the 
reservoir  of  the  surplus  life  of  the  old  country.  What 
England  would  do,  but  for  this  reservoir,  into  which 
to  empty  its  gentry,  I  cannot  well  see.  Perhaps 
Englishmen  revolutionize,  as  the  French  do,  for  the 
want  of  some  such  reservoir  to  empty  their  surplus 
life  into.  India  is  England's  great  office  placer, 
where,  mine  the  educated  youth  of  England,  who  can 
find  nothing  to  do  at  home  (save  work,  and  that  is 
not  fashionable  there) ;  or,  where  are  banished  officers 
of  the  army  (legion  in  number),  in  command  of  the 
native  troops  of  India.  India  rescues  England  from 
the  proud  and  educated,  the  idle,  but  not  hard-work- 
ing, Englishmen.  Much  of  the  best  blood  of  Eng- 
land is  in  India,  no  more  idle,  though,  than  it  is  at 
home ;  for,  when  it  finds  no  vent  in  wars,  it  hunts 
tigers,  or  leopards,  or  panthers,  or  deer,  or  any  thing, 
even  elephants,  that  the  jungles  hide.  It  is  no  sine- 
cure, certainly,  to  command  in  a  country  where  you 
have  to  use  punkahs  and  grass-covered  doors,  ever  wet 
with  water,  to  be  able  to  live  at  all.  Nevertheless, 
life  is  so  judiciously  economized  in  India  by  the 
government,  that  the  European  lives,  and  recovers, 


ON  THE  ARABIAN  AND  RED  SEAS.  34.3 

often,  even  from  a  lost  liver.  When  sickness,  or 
threatened  sickness,  assails  him,  he  is  sent  home. 
Even  when  well,  he  is  allowed  to  go  to  England  every 
five  or  six  years,  and  to  stay  a  year  to  recruit  in. 
The  laws  of  health  have  been  so  well  studied,  that 
when  illness  threatens  in  the  plains,  the  highlands  are 
resorted  to,  and  every  thing  that  can  be  done  in  dress, 
barracks,  and  provisions,  for  the  British  soldier,  to 
save  his  life,  is  here  done.  In  person,  all  he  has  to 
do  is  to  drill  in  early  morning,  or  at  sunset  in  the 
evening.  Coolies  wait  upon  him.  All  his  cooking 
is  done  by  others,  and  baths  are  provided  for  him. 
The  sanitary  regulations  are  now  the  best  human  in- 
genuity can  devise  to  save  life,  and  they  are  generally 
successful. 

All  British  officers  acknowledge  that  England  has 
a  very  frail  hold  on  India,  and  that  it  could  not  hold 
it  a  day  without  an  army  over  200,000  strong.  Never- 
theless, its  grip  is  greater  and  closer  now  than  ever 
before.  To  say  nothing  of  the  reaction  in  favor  of 
British  power  since  it  quelled  the  terrible  mutiny,  its 
railroad  and  telegraph  systems  are  worth  to  it  100,- 
000  soldiers,  or  more.  There  is  no  confidence  be- 
tween Englishmen,  and  Hindoos,  and  Mohammedans. 
There  is  no  bond  of  unity  in  any  way,  except  that  of 
force.  The  races  are  in  all  respects  repugnant,  the 
one  to  the  other.  To  increase  its  security,  the  Gov- 
ernment makes  up  the  native  regiments  about  one- 
half  from  Hindoos,  and  the  other  Mohammedans ; 
and  it  relies  more  upon  the  Sikh  soldier  for  protection 


344  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

than  upon  any  other — the  Sikh  from  the  up-country, 
who  has  great  contempt  for  the  men  of  the  plains — 
the  Sikh,  who,  in  the  last  mutiny,  stood  faithful,  when 
every  thing  else  was  dropping  away.  Education  is 
doing  something  to  soften  the  mistrust  of  race ;  but 
Christian  missions,  as  yet,  seem  to  be  doing  little  or 
nothing.  Education,  however,  at  first,  only  makes 
Deists  of  Hindoos  and  Mohammedans.  It  takes  away 
from  them  all  respect  for  their  own  customs,  while  it 
cannot  sever  them  from  the  associations  of  their 
brethren  and  kindred.  They  lose  their  respect  for 
the  Koran  and  the  Yedas,  and  yet  they  have  no  more 
respect  for  the  Bible.  But,  doubtless,  this  is  a  process 
through  which  the  heathen  mind  has  to  go,  before  it 
can  comprehend  the  sublime  truths  of  Christianity. 
According  to  the  best  authorities,  the  Hindoo  Pan- 
theon is  peopled  by  precisely  333,000,000  gods — and 
such  a  lot  of  divinities,  of  course,  are  not  to  be  got  rid 
of  in  a  hurry !  Then,  the  castes  are  not  to  be  broken 
down  without  tremendous  social  struggles.  The 
Brahmins,  even,  count  2,000  separate,  distinct  families 
of  their  order  alone  !  Then,  the  abominable  castes 
in  some  parts  of  India — that  is,  the  outcasts — out- 
number these  Brahmins  in  the  proportion  of  three  to 
one,  exclusive  of  the  other  impure  and  very  low 
tribes !  Bankers  in  Bengal  rank  below  barbers ! 
But  I  shall  not  write  a  book  on  castes.  Nor  shall  I 
dwell  more  upon  the  Indian,  as  contrasted  with  the 
European — for  what  can  I  know  in  my  flight  over, 
and  through  the  land  ?  All  I  can  give  is  impressions  ; 


ON  THE  ARABIAN  AND  RED   SEAS.  34.5 

and  one  of  the  most  vivid  of  my  impressions  is,  that 
the  Indian  is  far  inferior  to  the  Chinese  or  the  Japan- 
ese, in  almost  every  quality  that  goes  to  make  up  the 
man. 

This  Arabian  Sea  I  am  coasting  along  has  all 
sorts  of  a  history,  from  the  days  when  Alexander's 
fleet  was  off  the  Persian  Gulf,  to  the  victorious  eras 
of  the  Arabs,  who  led  the  way  to  the  coast  of  Malabar. 
But  the  Arab  fleets  do  not  amount  to  much  now. 
They  do  bring  down  coffee  from  Mocha,  and  little 
things  from  Muscat;  but  their  ocean  craft  cannot 
have  improved  much  for  a  thousand  years.  Despite 
the  English  gunboats,  they  keep  up  the  slave  trade 
from  Zanguebar,  and  run  the  gauntlet  to  Turkish 
ports,  here  and  there,  in  order  to  find  a  market  for 
the  chattel.  It  is  not  creditable  to  the  spirit  and  spunk 
of  the  African — is  it  ? — that  even  the  Indian  and  the 
Arab  can  kidnap  and  sell  him  ?  But  let  us  not  under- 
value this  Arab,  as  once,  if  not  now,  he  was  a  mighty 
man,  not  only  of  the  East,  but  of  parts  of  the  "West ; 
for  he  gave  us  our  algebra,  our  numerals,  and  other 
arts  and  sciences  too  numerous  to  number  here. 
Just  now,  the  Turk  has  got  him  under  foot ;  but  he 
is  fighting  in  Arabia  this  very  day,  as  I  go  by,  to  re- 
cover his  lost  prestige,  and  Turkish  fleets  and  Turkish 
armies  float  all  about  here,  in  order  to  keep  the  Arab 
down. 

Shall  we  always  have  to  go  to  Aden,  and  roast  in 
the  Eed  Sea,  in  order  to  get  to,  or  from  Europe  ? 
A  railroad,  to  run  from  London  to  Bombay  in 
16 


34:6  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

five  days,  is  earnestly  talked  of  even  now,  to  do  away 
with  the  twenty-one  days  by  sea;  and  some  such 
rail,  within  twenty  years,  will  be  laid,  the  way  the 
world  hurries  on.  That  road  will  run  through  Con- 
stantinople to  Bombay — in  the  Yalley  of  the  Tigris, 
by  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  and  where  once  were  Seleu- 
cia,  Ctesiphon,  Ophir,  etc.  All  sorts  of  plans,  how- 
ever, are  now  laid  out  to  connect  India  by  rail  with 
Europe.  The  Russians  have  their  plan,  as  well  as 
the  English  ;  but  the  English,  since  the  opening  of 
the  Suez  Canal  to  commerce,  ought,  as  a  measure  of 
power,  if  not  of  speed,  to  be  pretty  well  content  with 
the  waters  that,  in  a  month  or  less,  will  float  a  Brit- 
ish steamer  from  Southampton  to  Bombay. 


ADEN,  November  12. 

Encore,  Anglais !  Toujours,  Anglais  !  England 
forever,  and  ever,  and  ever !  There,  is  the  British 
flag  once  more  on  top  of  these  volcanic  crags  of 
Aden !  There,  is  a  British  (white)  regiment,  and 
there,  is  another,  coffee-colored,  regiment ;  and  there, 
is  a  battalion  of  British  artillery,  a  fort,  etc.,  etc.  Is 
there  no  end  of  England  ?  There,  is  a  British  steam 
engine,  condensing  ocean  salt  water  for  these  poor, 
exiled  soldiers  to  drink,  and  there,  is  a  British  steam- 
machine,  making  ice  to  cool  off  the  wretches,  whom 
the  volcanic  sun  is  roasting.  A  few  hours'  steam  be- 
yond this  is  the  little  (British)  Island  of  Perim,  in 
the  mouth  of  the  Straits  of  Babelmandel,  seized  by 


ON  THE  ARABIAN  AND   BED  SEAS. 

the  English,  and  covered  with  British  guns,  to  com- 
mand the  entrance  to,  and  exit  from  the  Red  Sea. 
Aden,  and  this  whole  country  round  about  here,  cer- 
tainly, as  we  read  in  Bible  history,  were  among  the 
first  places  the  Lord  made  on  earth — if  not  Aden,  the 
Red  Sea,  and  Mount  Sinai — and  all  bear  marks,  in 
the  dry  rocks,  on  which  the  rain  seldom  or  never 
pours,  and  on  the  sandy  deserts,  of  the  very  earliest 
of  the  arts  of  world-making.  Certain,  it  has  never 
been  finished,  never  covered  with  grass,  never  adorned 
with  trees,  but  left,  as  laid  out,  for  the  sun  to  roast 
and  bake,  with  all  who  would  venture  to  dwell  there- 
on. Nevertheless,  the  British  have  made  Aden 
habitable.  They  have  laid  out  excellent  roads. 
They  have  remade  the  ancient  tanks,  where  once  wa- 
ter was,  but  not  a  drop  now.  They  have  tempted 
over  the  Somauli — bright  sort  of  darkies,  without 
woolly  heads — from  the  African  coast,  to  work  for 
them,  and  they  have  tempted  the  Arabs  from  the  in- 
terior to  come  in  on  their  camels,  and  sell  them  no- 
tions of  many  kinds.  One  can  now  live  in  Aden. 
One  need  not  necessarily  die  during  the  year ;  but 
the  officer  of  a  life  insurance  company  who  should 
issue  a  policy  longer  than  that  on  a  dweller  in  Aden, 
ought  to  be  dismissed  for  incompetency  of  judgment, 
to  say  nothing  more. 

But  Aden  is  the  fag-end  of  creation — the  jump- 
ing-off  place  of  Ishmael,  nevertheless.  The  popula- 
tion live  (no  Europeans  among  them,  except  the  offi- 
cials), I  should  say,  from  my  first  introduction,  by  div- 


34:8  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

ing — that  is,  by  jumping  into  the  water,  and  diving 
down  deep  for  the  sixpences  and  the  coppers  travel- 
lers throw  there  to  tempt  them.  Swarms  of  youngsters 
hovered  around  our  steamer,  swam  all  day,  and 
twenty,  thirty,  or  forty  would  dive  for  a  copper,  if 
you  threw  it  into  the  water,  some  one  always  getting 
it,  or  under  the  steamer,  for  a  sixpence,  coming  out 
safe  and  sound,  under  twenty  feet  of  water.  But  all, 
of  course,  do  not  live  by  diving.  There  are  hosts  of 
coalers  for  the  steamers  passing  by.  There  are  four 
steamers  in  the  harbor  to-day,  all  coaling.  Then, 
there  are  strings  and  strings  of  camels,  with  the  nose 
of  one  tied  to  the  tail  of  another,  stretching  into 
town  and  stretching  out.  The  curiosity  trade  of  this 
place  for  strangers  is  ostrich  feathers ;  but  this  being 
the  Jews'  Sabbath,  who  have  the  monopoly  of  the 
business,  few  or  none  were  offering,  and  the  trade  was 
hard  to  drive — (cost,  150  to  200  cents,  or  less,  for 
first-rates,  price  demanded,  $5  to  $10).  I  rode  out 
three  or  four  miles  to  the  cantonments  of  the  soldiers, 
and  to  see  the  tanks,  which  ought  to  hold  the  water 
that  won't  now  run  down  from  the  mountains  into 
them.  The  tanks  are  a  grand  work ;  and  the  can- 
tonments do  credit  to  the  care  the  British]  take  of 
their  soldiers. 


THE  RED  SEA,  November  15. 

I  am  passing  by  where  Mount  Sinai,  if  not  Mount 
Horeb,  ought  to  be  seen  among  the  high-towering 


ON  THE  ARABIAN  AND  RED  SEAS.  349 

mounts  upon  my  right.  I  have  taken  out  Genesis, 
and  Exodus,  and  Leviticus,  to  read  the  whole  story 
of  Pharaoh  and  his  host,  and  of  Moses,  and  the  stiff- 
necked  Israelites,  the  forty  years'  wandering  in  the 
not  very  big  wilderness,  and  the  promised  land.  The 
Bedouin  Arabs  now  have  possession  of  all  this  land, 
and  it  is  unsafe  to  go  upon  it — so  unsafe,  that  the 
Egyptians  and  the  British  have  built  their  light- 
houses for  the  Eed  Sea  on  the  opposite  (African) 
coast,  not  daring  to  trust  the  keepers  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  these  Arabs,  whose  hands  are  yet  against 
every  man.  We  have  just  passed  Abyssinia,  where, 
a  few  years  ago,  a  great  British  host,  both  from  Eng- 
land and  from  India,  were  mustered  to  punish  the  king 
for  some  disrespect  to  the  British  authorities ;  and  we 
have  passed  Nubia,  and  Yeddah,  where  the  Moham- 
medans land,  by  the  thousands,  from  all  parts  of  the 
East,  to  make  their  pilgrimage  to  Mecca ;  and  we  are 
now  off  Egypt,  in  a  cooler  air,  fuller  of  oxygen,  with 
some  vitality  in  it,  so  that  we  can  breathe  with  a  will 
once  more. 

All  sorts  of  tales  are  told  of  the  Eed  Sea  navigation, 
some  of  which  are  true,  among  them,  one — that  at 
times  it  is  so  hot  here,  passengers  on  board  the  ships 
drop  down  dead  from  heat,  apoplexy,  or  exhaustion. 
~Now  and  then  it  is  so  hot,  that  steamers  running 

'  O 

down  the  sea  with  the  wind  are  obliged  to  change 
their  course,  and  go  backward,  to  catch  some  puffs 
of  air,  both  to  preserve  the  lives  of  their  firemen  and 
passengers.  The  hot  air  of  the  deserts — the  simoon, 


350  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

it  may  be — actually  melts  people,  when  shut  up  in 
this  Red  Sea  furnace.  But,  just  now,  as  we  are  enter- 
ing the  Gulf  of  Suez,  the  air  from  the  north  is  ex- 
hilarating and  charming.  For  the  first  time  since  I 
have  been  in  the  East,  save  the  few  weeks  I  was  in 
or  near  Pekin  and  the  Great  Wall,  I  begin  to  breathe 
an  air  such  as  I  have  been  accustomed  to  in  Europe 
and  at  home.  The  sun,  in  this  dry  atmosphere,  is  no 
longer  man's  terrible  enemy.  It  is  a  dreadful  thing 
to  feel,  as  one  does  all  the  while  in  India  and  China, 
that  the  sun,  which  gives  life  and  verdure  to  the 
earth,  is  European  man's  greatest  enemy — as  fatal  to 
him,  without  pith-protecting  hat,  or  thick  umbrella, 
as  bullet  or  cannon-ball. 

But  I  have  taken  the  wrong  season  to  travel  in 
the  East.  What  an  American  ought  to  do,  is  to  leave 
San  Francisco  in  August,  see  Japan  a  month  or  less, 
and  then,  dodging  Shanghai,  make  his  way,  in  Sep- 
tember or  October,  to  Pekin  ;  then,  returning  by  the 
way  of  Shanghai,  see  that  place;  then,  coast  off 
China ;  then,  to  Hong  Kong  and  Canton ;  thence  sail 
for  Singapore  and  Calcutta,  to  reach  there  in  Decem- 
ber, tarrying  not  over  two  months,  and  being  sure  that 
he  is  out  of  India  in  February.  The  voyage,  then,  to 
Egypt  and  the  Holy  Land  will  be  pleasant  in  March, 
and  one  has  all  Europe  before  him  for  the  summer. 
I  nearly  reversed  this  order  of  the  months,  because  it 
is  only  in  the  summer,  just  now,  that  I  can  travel.  I 
would  not  advise  any  other  traveller  to  follow  my 
months  and  my  course  here,  in  the  East — for  the  sun 


ON  THE  ARABIAN  AND   RED  SEAS.  351 

may  send  him  to  his  long  home,  before  he  would 
wish  to  go  there. 


SUKZ,  November  18. 

Before  I  part  with  the  Eed  Sea,  as  a  guide  to  fu- 
ture travellers,  I  will  add,  the  cost  of  fares  from  South- 
ampton (Eng.)  to  Shanghai  (China),  which  has  been 
much  reduced  of  late,  in  consequence  of  competition 
with  the  French  Messagerie  line,  the  American  (San 
Francisco)  line,  and  the  Holt's  line,  which  runs  from 
Liverpool  through  the  Suez  Canal  without  change  of 
steamer.  These  rates  do  not  include  wines,  or  the 
£3  railroad  fare  over  the  Egyptian  road,  from  Suez  to 
Alexandria  (224  miles'  run,  at  night,  in  10  hours). 

Rates  of  Passage  from  Brindisi  (Italy)  to  Southampton 

to— 


Aden £40 

Fombay 60 

Ceylon 60 

Calcutta 65 

Singapore Y5 


Batavia £85 

Hong  Kong 85 

Shanghai 95 

Yokohama 95 

Melbourne  &  Sidney 80 


The  fare  from  Brindisi  to  London,  by  rail,  is 
about  306  francs. 

The  distances  are,  from  Brindisi  to — • 

Miles. 

Alexandria 825 

Suez 224 

Aden 1,308 

Bombay 1,664 

4,021 


352  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

Miles. 

From  Bombay  to  Galle  (Ceylon) 911 

"  "       Penang 2,124 

"  "       Singapore 2,505 

"  "       Hong  Kong 3,942 

"  "       Shanghai 4,812 

"  "       Yokohama 6,432 

Passengers  on  the  P.  &  O.  line  can  stop  as  they 
please,  or  go,  via  Madras,  Calcutta,  and  overland  by 
rail,  to  Bombay,  paying  their  own  rail  and  hotel  ex- 
penses. 


LETTER   XXXYII. 

SUDDEN  FLIGHT  FROM  ASIA  AND  AFRICA  INTO 
EUROPE. 

Among  the  Alps. — The  Isthmus  of  Suez. — Suez  Canal. — Will  it  pay  ? — Egypt  and 
Alexandria. — Confederate  Officers  in  the  Pasha's  Army. — Horrid  (English)  Kail- 
road  Cars. — Boreas  and  the  Egyptian  Sands. — Across  the  Mediterranean  to 
Brindisi.— Things  in  Brindisi  and  Turin.— How  cold  it  is.— Mt.  Cenis  and  the 
Great  Tunnel. — Glorious  Scenery. 

TURIN  (ITALY),  Novetnber  23,  1871. 

ANOTHER  Hegira.  Mohammed,  the  inventor  of 
Hegiras,  didn't  fly  so  fast  as  I  have  been  flying  some 
time  back.  I  was  roasting  in  Suez,  on  the  Red  Sea, 
on  the  18th,  at  night,  and  now  I  am  freezing  here,  in 
the  Alps,  among  snow  and  snow-storms.  I  have  been 
hot  so  long,  roasted  so  often,  in  China,  Ceylon,  and 
India,  and  the  tropics,  that  I  had  forgotten  there 
was  need  of  thick  clothing ;  and  here  I  am  stopping 
to  buy  wool  and  woollens,  and  furs,  and  comforters, 
to  keep  even  tolerably  warm.  The  hills  are  all  white 
with  snow.  Muffs,  boas,  etc.,  protect  the  women 
from  the  blasts,  and  the  men,  wrapped  up  in  furs, 
chatter  their  teeth,  and  shiver  and  shake.  What  a 
sudden  change  from  the  gauzes  and  linens  of  India, 
and  the  Arabian  and  Red  Seas ! 

"Well — but  how  did  you  get  here  so  quick  ?   "What 


354  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'   RUN. 

did  you  see  ?  I  shot  through  Egypt  in  a  night  (my 
excuse  is,  that  I  had  seen  the  Pyramids  and  the  Nile 
before).  A  whole  day  was  given  us  at  Suez,  to  see 
the  Suez  Canal,  and  to  see,  if  we  could  see,  where 
Moses  led  the  Israelites  over  that  Red  Sea,  and  where 
Pharaoh  and  his  chariots  and  his  hosts  went  under. 
Now  that  I  have  seen  the  borders  of  the  desert, 
where  for  forty  years  the  Israelites  wandered,  I  mar- 
vel no  more,  as  I  once  did,  that  they  looked  upon  the 
rocks  of  Jerusalem  and  its  surroundings  as  the 
promised  land — for  rocks  and  crags,  even,  are  pref- 
erable to  interminable  sands.  ]STo  wonder  the  Israel- 
ites were  happy  when  they  got  into  grass  and  vege- 
tables, and  had  something  better  to  eat  than  sands 
and  manna.  "What,  however,  more  interests  the 
Present  than  even  the  Biblical  history,  is  the  better 
turn,  the  moderns  have  made  of  the  Red  Sea  waters 
in  the  great  Suez  Canal.  There  were  five  steamers 
coming  through  the  day  we  were  there.  The  canal 
is  a  perfect  success  for  the  commerce  of  Europe  and 
Asia,  and  the  world  owes  a  great  debt  to  M.  Lesseps 
for  forcing  it  through,  despite  all  English  ministerial 
opposition.  It  hardly  pays,  however,  and  probably 
never  will  pay,  until  it  passes  into  English  hands, 
which,  sooner  or  later,  will  have  a  majority  of  the 
stock,  and  then,  at  low  prices,  make  that  stock  prof- 
itable. 

Alexandria  is  a  great  city  for  commerce  now,  but 
the  canal  is  already  making  a  hole  in  its  trade,  and 
will  soon  make  a  greater  hole.  Yessels  of  all  nations, 


SUDDEN  FLIGHT  INTO   EUROPE.  355 

but  ours,  are  now  in  its  port.  We  are  minus  almost 
everywhere,  I  am  sorry  to  say.  Our  American  Con- 
federate officers  are  numerous,  I  am  told,  in  the 
Pasha's  army,  and  are  making  good  artillerists  and 
soldiers  of  the  Egyptians ;  but  American  vessels  on 
the  Mediterranean,  this  part  of  it,  at  least,  are  scarce, 
very  scarce.  We  got  out  of  the  railroad  cars  early 
in  the  morning,  miserable  and  worn.  The  English 
compartment  car  is  here,  and  a  miserable  thing  it  is, 
in  a  night  ride,  for  India-worn  travellers.  Such  a 
sorry,  forlorn  set  of  us,  as  turned  up  in  the  ferry-boat 
in  the  morning,  from  all  parts  of  Asia  and  Australia 
(two  steamers,  pretty  full,  had  disembarked  their 
passengers  at  Suez,  and  met  here) — the  lame,  the 
halt,  the  blind,  some  on  litters,  others  in  arms — the 
travelling  world  seldom  sees.  There  are  no  sleeping- 
cars.  We  had  to  sit  bolt  upright,  all  night,  and 
study  Egyptian  astrology,  as  we  peeped  through  the 
windows,  or  lamp-ology,  if  we  looked  at  the  lamp 
streaming  in  our  eyes.  One  set  of  the  miserables 
departed  forthwith  for  Southampton,  direct ;  another 
set,  I  among  them,  for  the  old  Roman  port  of  Brun- 
dusium,  once  the  great  exit  of  the  Caesars,  for  Greece 
and  the  East.  A  sand  wind  blew  from  the  coast,  and 
littered  every  thing  on  deck  with  atoms  of  sand.  I 
was  glad  to  be  out  of  Alexandria  that  day,  therefore, 
as  fast  as  steam  could  carry  us. 

Our  steamer  was  the  Candia,  a  wretched  concern, 
ever  so  old,  and  half  a  century  behind  the  age ;  but 
it  was  commanded  by  a  handsome  fellow,  a  little 


356  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  KUN. 

over  sixty,  whom  the  English  call  "  Gentleman 
George."  I  thought  he  was  the  Lord  High  Admiral 
of  all  the  East,  the  first  squint  I  had  of  him.  The 
P.  &  O.  line  of  steamers  have,  almost  everywhere, 
superb  officers,  first-rate  sailors,  as  well  as  well-bred 
men ;  but  such  "  a  swell "  as  Gentleman  George  of 
tFe  Candia,  I  never  met  before.  It  is  a  mistake, 
though,  to  waste  so  much  talent  upon,  the  sea.  He 
ought  to  be  the  Lord  High  Chamberlain  at  St.  James's 
or  Windsor  Castle.  We  should  have  been  in  Brin- 
disi  in  about  seventy  hours  from  Alexandria,  but  we 
brought  it,  in  seventy-five  hours — for,  though  Boreas 
blew  dead  against  us,  our  Gentleman  George  counter- 
acted him  by  blowing  on  board.  We  lost  our  way  at 
night,  and,  in  the  morning,  got  in  only  by  tracking 
the  colored  water  on  the  coast ;  but  I  never  felt  any 
alarm,  nay,  should  not  have  felt  any,  if  Yulcan  had 
given  out  in  steam,  or  Boreas  in  wind — for  there  were 
enough  of  both  in  Gentleman  George  to  drive  any 
ship  ahead. 

Brindisi,  that  Horace  and  many  other  classics 
wrote  of,  more  or  less,  died  when  Rome  died,  but  is 
reviving  fast,  now,  as  the  shortest  railroad  terminus 
to  Egypt  and  the  East.  We  stopped  there  two  or 
three  hours,  full  long  enough  to  see  all  now  worth 
seeing  in  Brindisi,  unless  one  is  an  antiquarian,  or 
archaeologist,  or  a  student  of  classical  lore.  The  tel- 
egraph runs  from  here  all  over  the  world ;  and  the 
railroads  all  over  the  European  part  of  it.  The  port 
is  re-made,  and  a  very  good  port  it  is,  now,  with 


SUDDEN  FLIGHT  INTO  EUROPE.  357 

water  enough  for  any  ship  that  comes  along.  We 
left  at  noon  on  the  22d,  and  were  in  Turin  at  10 
A.  M.,  on  the  23d — distance,  about  575  miles,  but  that 
is  the  time.  Bologna  and  several  other  famous  places 
were  passecj.  in  the  night ;  but  nothing  tempts  me  to 
stop  now.  My  head  is  full  of  sights,  and  all  I  crave 
is  to  see  no  more — which  only  proves  what  I  have 
written  before,  that  three  months'  continuous  travel 
and  sight-seeing  is  about  as  much  as  the  human  mind 
can  stand,  on  one  stretch,  after  which  all  is  labor, 
labor. 

In  Turin  there  is  a  good  deal  to  see,  if  one  is  not 
travel-blinded,  as  I  am  now.  Its  shops  are  pretty. 
There  are  many  beautiful  buildings.  Its  streets  are 
all  in  fine  order.  The  hotels  are  many,  and  all  seem 
excellent.  The  King  of  Italy  no  longer  lives  here, 
and  the  Court  is  gone ;  but  Turin  is  worth  a  tourist's 
day,  and  the  bazaars  are  very  tempting.  All  I  want, 
or  crave,  however,  is  to  be  warm,  warm.  I  begin  to 
wish  I  was  back  in  Bombay  or  Calcutta.  The  snow, 
that  at  first  looked  so  bewitching  on  the  Appenines 
and  the  Adriatic  Sea,  as  we  flew  along  the  railroad 
track,  amid  miles  and  miles  of  olive  plantations,  is 
no  more  bewitching  now.  An  icicle,  which  four 
or  five  days  ago  I  would  have  given  at  least  a  rupee 
to  look  at,  is  a  hateful  sight  to-day. 

Don't  talk  to  me  of  Italy,  any  part  of  it,  as  a  re- 
treat to  spqnd  the  winter  in.  I  have  tried  all  parts 
of  it,  in  winter — half-frozen  in  all.  I  am  pencilling 
now  with  an  overcoat  on,  and  a  woollen  glove  on  the 


358  -A-  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

unwriting  hand,  to  keep  it  warm,  while  a  costly 
wood-fire,  bought  by  the  pound,  is  blazing  before  me 
— all  the  heat  going  up  chimney,  though.  Don't 
talk  to  me  of  Pisa,  where  once  doctors  sent  consump- 
tive victims,  to  be  sure  to  die ;  or,  of  Florence,  or 
Rome,  or  [Naples.  The  sun  is  hot  enough,  when,  at 
noonday,  you  are  in  it ;  but  indoors,  on  marble  or 
wooden  floors,  or  even  on  carpeted  floors,  you  shake 
and  shiver,  and  your  teeth  chatter,  and  you  long  for 
the  coal  fires  of  home.  The  only  place  in  Europe  to 
spend  a  winter  in  is  St.  Petersburg,  or,  possibly, 
England,  where  the  fires  are  good,  and  the  comforts 
are  great ;  or,  to  use  a  solecism,  in  Cairo,  in  Africa. 
There  is  not  a  winter's  comfort  for  an  American, 
or  an  Englishman,  in  winter,  south  of  the  British 
Channel. 


MT.  CENIS,  OR  THE  GREAT  ALPINE  ) 
TUNNEL,  November  24.          ) 

But,  there  is  something  new  to  see,  travel-blinded 
as  I  am,  and  that  is  this  tunnel,  and  the  approach  to 
it  on  the  Italian  side.  Wonderful  work !  I  crossed, 
and  re-crossed,  Mt.  Cenis  and  other  Alps,  years  ago, 
on  foot,  with  a  pack  on  my  back ;  but  then  there  was 
no  pleasure  like  this,  now,  amid  snow,  and  ice,  and 
glaciers,  little,  if  not  big.  Two  or  three  locomotives 
are  taking  us  up  the  ascent,  and  we  seem  to  be  trans- 
ferred from  the  plains  of  Italy  to  Alpine  cottages,  as 
if  on  wings.  The  sun  is  illuminating  every  moun- 


SUDDEN  FLIGHT   INTO  EUROPE.  359 

tain  crag,  and  the  ice  is  reflecting,  and  respreading, 
his  rays.  We  are  all  in  a  high  state  of  excitement  as 
we  enter  the  tunnel,  which  is  eight  miles  long,  and 
which  we  are  to  be  twenty-five  minutes  in  passing. 
The  cars  are  lit  by  gas,  and  well  heated  with  long 
hot-water  metal  foot-warmers.  The  thermometer 

must  be  in  the  neighborhood  of  zero. 

«••«•. 

IN  FKANCE. 

Wonderful  work,  indeed!  We  are  now  on  the 
French  side,  and  the  sun  is  hid,  and  there  is  but  little 
to  see,  save  mist  and  snow.  The  gas-light  of  our 
car-compartment  was  jostled  out  by  some  jerking 
motion  of  the  car,  and  we  were  left  in  total  darkness 
in  the  heart  of  the  Mount.  Then  it  was  that  a 
Frenchman's  economy  and  love  of  smoking  turned 
to  use  for  us  all.  Out  of  his  carpet-bag  came  the 
relics  of  his  candle,  that  he  had  paid  a  franc  for,  the 
night  before,  in  his  Italian  hotel  (the  Frenchmen 
always  carry  their  candle  bits  away;  we,  less  pru- 
dent, leave  them  behind) — and  out  of  his  cigar 
match-box  came  his  match,  and  with  the  two  we 
soon  replaced  the  lost  gas-light,  and  re-lit  the  gas. 

The  Indies  and  the  East  are  made  a  day  nearer 
by  the  opening  of  this  Mt.  Cenis  tunnel,  and  Italy 
and  France  are  brought  close  together.  The  British 
India  mail  is  now  going  this  way,  instead  of  going 
through  Germany. 

The  soft,  soothing  tongue  of  Italy  is  heard  no 
more,  and  we  are  hearing  the  short,  sharp,  curt  sylla- 


36Q  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

bles  of  the  French.  The  nuisance  of  passports  be- 
gins here — here,  in  this  now  Republican  France — 
while  Italy,  a  monarchy,  is  freed  from  them.  I  have 
passed  through  all  Asia,  and  a  part  of  Africa,  and 
never  heard  of  a  passport ;  but  here  the  French  of- 
ficials huddle  us  up  in  a  coop  and  demand  one.  I 
happened  to  have  one,  describing  me  years  and  years 
ago,  which  is  no  more  a  description  of  me  now,  than 
Senex  would  be  of  Juventus ;  but  what  matters  ?  It 
is  in  English,  and  the  French  officials  cannot  read  a 
line  of  it.  There  were  venerable  French  visas  enough 
on  it  to  suit  either  the  Republic  or  the  Empire — for 
I  was  in  France  when  there  was  a  commotion  once 
before.  There  were  some  Australians  with  us,  on 
their  way  to  England,  who,  like  us,  had  not  stopped 
long  enough  any  where,  since  they  left  Melbourne,  to 
have  a  passport  made  out;  but  we  coaxed  them 
through,  and  the  French  officials  were  yielding,  and 
very  polite — as  grave  as  owls,  however,  in  warning 
them  never  thus  to  venture  through  France  again 
without  the  inevitable  passport.  My  American 
vouching  for  them,  I  think,  had  more  influence  with 
the  officials  than  the  half-dozen  Englishmen  who 
were  helping  them  along;  for  the  French  officials 
must  have  felt  sure  an  American  was  not  conspiring 
for  the  re-instalment  of  the  empire,  whatever  mo- 
narchical Englishman  might  be  thinking  of  doing. 

You  will  hear  from  me  next  in  Paris,  where  I  am 
bound  for  a  rest,  and  a  refit,  and  for  repairs  in  gen- 
eral, after  this  long  and  hasty  flight. 


LETTER  XXXYIII. 

THINGS  IN  PARIS  AND  LONDON. 

Things  in  Paris  and  in  London.— Shopping  in  both  Cities.— Paris  sad  just  now.— 
An  American  almost  Home  in  England. — Liverpool. — Bough  Booking  on  the 
Atlantic. — Put  into  Newfoundland  for  Coal. — St.  John's. — Fishermen  there. — 
Home  again,  Sweet  Home,  etc. 

PABIS,  December  10,  1871. 

FKOM  the  great  capitals  of  Yedo,  Pekin,  and  the 
great  cities  of  Canton,  Calcutta,  and  Bombay,  com- 
ing as  rapidly  as  I  have,  it  seems  like  a  dream  to  be 
here,  in  what  deems  itself  the  very  focus  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  in  what  is  (or  has  been),  in  many  respects, 
the  most  attractive  city  of  the  world.  But,  of  Paris 
I  can  scribble  nothing  new,  unless  I  tell  you,  I  am 
here  repairing,  refitting,  just  as  you  repair  and  refit  a 
hulk  that  has  been  knocking  around  the  world,  and 
has  lost  much  of  its  rigging.  One's  wardrobe  melts 
away  in  the  heats  of  the  tropics,  and  I  am  scraping 
up  the  relics  of  my  India-rubber  overcoat  and  ga- 
loches,  that  have  melted  under  the  heats  of  Singapore 
and  Penang.  I  find  my  woollens  well  spotted  and 
inclined  to  be  rotten.  More  experienced  travellers 
take  this  voyage  of  mine  in  tin  trunks,  whereas  I 
have  used  only  my  American  coverings.  Gloves  look 


362  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

like  leopard  skins.  Razors  are  so  rusty  that  they  re- 
mind one  of  shaving  in  the  Barber  of  Seville.  My 
companion  in  travel  has  but  little  left,  save  shreds  ; 
and  hence,  before  we  can  reappear  in  civilization,  we 
must  refit  for  it. 

Paris  is  the  greatest  place  for  shopping  on  earth. 
If  any  member  of  Congress  had  half  the  eloquence 
of  a  Parisian  shopwoman,  his  fame  would  be  made 
as  the  greatest  orator  of  the  age.  I  have  read  Iso- 
crates,,  studied  Quintilian  in  days  gone  by,  read 
and  re-read  Cicero  de  Oratore ;  but  I  never  have  so 
realized  Demosthenes's  idea  of  eloquence — action, 
ACTION,  as  in  the  action  of  these  Parisian  shopwomen. 
The  dear  creatures — if  they  only  wore  trousers,  and 
would  come  over  to  the  United  States — not  a  man 
could  stand  up  against  them  in  stump-speaking. 
But,  oh,  how  they  will  fib !  What  marvellous  tales 
they  will  tell !  and  how  they  will  swear  to  them — 
and  you  could  not  help  believing  them  all,  if  you 
had  not  been  standing  such  batteries  of  eloquent  ac- 
tion, a  long  lifetime.  The  East  India  shopkeepers  are 
eloquent,  and  the  Chinese  have  but  little  regard  for 
truth;  but  the  French  shopwoman  will  fib  with 
such  grace  and  gentleness,  that  she  insinuates  herself 
into  your  pocket,  despite  your  head,  while  all  is  done 
with  such  dignified  suavity,  that  you  could  not  con- 
tradict, if  you  would.  If  you  order  a  garment  to  be 
made,  you  have  not  the  least  certainty  that  it  will  be 
'done  within  a  week  after  the  day  promised.  You 
make  all  your  arrangements  to  depart  on  a  certain 


THINGS  IN  PARIS  AND  LONDON.  363 

day,  bid  adieu  to  your  banker,  and  settle  up  accounts 
with  him,  but  the  promised  articles  do  not  begin  to 
appear.  In  rage  you  rush  to  the  shop  to  scold.  .  .  . 

"  Madam,  you  solemnly  promised  me  to  have  it  ready  on 
Saturday." 

"  G'est  vrai,  monsieur,  and  it  shall  he  ready  on  Saturday." 

"And  why  is  it  not  ready  ?  " 

"  Ah,  monsieur,  you  did  not  say  this  Saturday ;  if  you  had, 
it  should  have  heen  all  ready.  But  you  said  '  Saturday  week.' " 

The  dodge  was  irresistible.  I  gave  up  in  despair, 
happy  to  have  a  fresh  promise  that  it  would  be  done 
the  Wednesday  before  "  the  Saturday  week." 

I  lectured  another  breaker  of  promises.  There 
was  no  dodging  the  point  I  made  with  her ;  and  I 
ended  with  saying : 

"  I  am  willing  to  stay  in  Paris  all  winter,  madame,  waiting 
for  your  things,  if  you  will  only  pay  my  hotel  bills." 

Madame  (in  reply) — "I  should  be  too  happy  to  do  that,  and 
thus  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  every  day." 

-  What  could  be  done  with  such  French  politeness 
as  that  ?  I  gave  up,  and  pay  my  own  hotel  bills,  of 
course. 

ANOTHER    SCENE. 

Monsieur  (speaking) — "And  they  are  not  ready?  "  (with  a 
sigh,  and  the  most  plaintive  look  of  appeal). 

Madame — "No,  monsieur.  Such  a  taille;  such  a  figure 
(throwing  up  both  hands  in  most  eloquent  enthusiasm).  We 
are  creating  the  most  ravishing  robe  that  ever  went  from  our 
fingers,  and  we  have  put  our  best  artists  upon  it — and  do  give 
us  time.  You  would  not  hurry  up  a  Eaphael,  or  a  Guido, 
would  you?  And  we  shall  do  something  worthy  of  them !  " 

The  humbug  was  irresistible.  The  only  way  to 
be  sure  of  any  thing  in  Paris,  in  a  given  time,  is  to 


364:  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

get  part  of  it,  and  then  threaten  to  go  off  with  that 
part  unpaid  for,  and  a  promise  to  pay  for  the  rest 
when  it  is  all  sent,  with  express  expenses  paid,  in  ad- 
dition. This  generally  produces  a  result. 

ANOTHER    SCENE. 

A  plump  and  jovial  American  at  the  door — "Is  the  jacket 
of  my  wife  ready  ?  " 

Madame  (in  reply) — "  Ah,  mon  Dieu,  monsieur,  I  cannot  say. 
I  will  inquire.  It  is  a  most  beautiful  jacket." 

Passing  by  me  in  the  room,  into  another  room, 
sotto  voce,  she  says : 

"I  know  it  is  not  (with  an  indescribable  shrug),  but  what  fib 
shall  I  tell  him  now,  le  malheureux  !  " 

The  plump  American,  of  course,  did  not  get  his 
wife's  jacket. 

The  fact  is,  a  week  or  two  is  not  wasted  in  Paris, 
to  hear  the  eloquence  of  French  shopwomen.  It  is 
more  touching  than  that  in  the  Assembly,  now,  at 
Versailles. 

And  the  art  with  which  a  French  woman  makes 
you  buy  what  you  don't  want,  and  pay  her  own  price 
for  it,  is  wonderful. 

"  It  is  ravishing,"  she  exclaims.  "  It  exactly  fits  your  figure 
and  complexion."  "  It  is  the  last  great  chef  d'ceuvre  of — some- 
body." "  I  have  sold  just  such  a  one  to  M. ,  your  country- 
man, whose  taste,  you  know,  is  perfect,"  etc.,  etc. 

But  Paris  is  sad,  sad  enough,  just  now.  There 
are  few  or  no  strangers  here.  The  shops  have  but 
few,  very  few,  customers.  Paper  money  has  made 
the  expenses  of  living  almost  as  great  as  in  the  Unit- 


THINGS  IN  PARIS  AND  LONDON.  365 

ed  States ;  and  paper  money  is  increasing  in  quantity, 
and  prices  are  rising.  There  is  snow  on  the  streets, 
and  the  cabs  with  difficulty  work  their  way  through. 
The  little  wood  fires  in  the  hotels  -but  make  one 
shiver,  and  force  upon  one  the  contrasts  of  the  red- 
hot  anthracite  at  home.  (Mem. — Never  spend  a 
winter  in  Paris,  unless  you  can  have  a  coal  fire.) 
There  seems  to  be  a  new  revolution  impending,  and 
the  feeling  of  it  in  the  air  affrights  strangers  off. 
The  hotels,  therefore,  are  as  empty  as  the  shops,  and 
the  Parisians  all  look  blue. 


LONDON,  December  20. 

It  is  refreshing,  after  a  voyage  around  the  world, 
to  be  again  in  an  English-speaking  country,  and  to 
be  able  to  comprehend  all  you  see  and  hear.  An 
American  exile  from  his  own  land  for  months,  feels, 
when  here,  with  all  these  English  surroundings,  as  if 
he  were  home  again.  And  what  a  wonderful  city 
this  is — these  millions  in  it — on  so  little  an  island  as 
Great  Britain  is !  No  part  of  our  "Western  country, 
not  even  Chicago  before  its  extinction  by  fire,  has 
grown  faster  than  this  London  has,  within  the  twenty- 
five  years  past.  The  fields  I  saw  here  but  a  few 
years  ago  are  now  streets,  built  with  palatial  houses. 
No  wonder,  after  all,  as  I  see  now,  in  coming  around 
the  world,  that  London  is  the  heart  of  the  millions  of 
India,  as  well  as  the  focus  of  Chinese  commerce  and 
trade.  This  London  stretches  its  arms  now  all  over 


366  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

the  earth,  and  its  ships  and  its  capital  are  in  every 
port  where  a  keel  can  float. 

Think  of  a  man's  being  thankful  that  he  has  not 
seen  the  sun  here  for  ten  days,  save  through  clouds 
of  coal-smoke  and  fog,  that  makes  the  sun,  when 
shining  even,  seem  as  if  seen  through  a  smoked  glass. 
I  am  thus  thankful,  now.  The  burning,  blazing  sun 
of  the  East,  that  I  have  just  escaped  from,  makes  me 
feel  as  if  I  never  wished  to  see  the  full-orbed  sun 
again ;  and  hence,  England  in  December  is  not  to  me 
the  miserable  climate  it  would  be  to  most  Americans 
just  now. 

The  shops  of  London  are  the  representative  shops 
of  the  whole  earth,  in  which  they  differ  from  Paris, 
or  any  other  great  capitals.  The  Japanese,  the  Chi- 
nese, the  Indians,  the  Ceylonese,  the  Borneans,  the 
Moors,  the  Arabs,  the  Africans,  all  have  representa- 
tive shops  in  London,  and  there  is  no  place  now.  on 
earth  like  London  for  shopping  and  shops.  The 
French  modistes  eclipse  the  English  in  the  arts  of 
creating  a  beautiful  woman,  despite  nature,  too ;  but 
the  English  tailors  now  are  among  the  first  in  the 
world,  unless  there  be  exceptions  in  some  of  the  New 
York  shops.  The  free  trade  of  England  has  made 
every  thing  here  about  as  cheap  as  at  the  place  of 
production,  save  the  necessary  expenses  of  transpor- 
tation ;  and  hence,  the  wares  of  the  whole  earth  can 
be  had  almost  as  cheap  as  in  the  places  of  their  crea- 
tion. 

Americans  can  learn  a  great  many  things  in  Lon- 


THINGS  IN  PARIS  AND  LONDON.  367 

don ;  but  Englishmen,  it  seems  to  me  just  now,  can 
learn  more  in  the  United  States.  The  English  car- 
travelling  is  yet  almost  barbaric ;  but  what  is  unfor- 
tunate, the  English  have  modelled  the  car-travelling 
of  the  greater  part  of  Europe.  This  is  not  felt  so 
much  on  the  little  isle,  where  distances  are  short,  as 
on  the  Continent,  where  distances  are  long,  and  where 
our  sleeping-cars  would  be  real  blessings  to  the  trav- 
eller. The  imprisonment  of  an  English  car  is  a 
species  of  incarceration,  that  fevers  and  enrages  an 
American ;  and  no  soft  cushions  or  luxuries  seem  to 
atone  for  it.  The  underground  car-travelling  in  Lon- 
don, and  the  cab  locomotion  there,  are  far  superior 
to  any  thing  we  have  in  the  United  States.  There 
are  no  hotels  in  London  to  be  compared  with  ours  in 
New  Tork  and  elsewhere  in  the  States ;  and  prices 
are  practically  higher,  with  fewer  luxuries,  though  the 
expenses  of  hotel  keeping  in  London  must  be  far  less 
than  in  New  York. 


LIVERPOOL,  December  23. 

Last  evening,  as  I  came  down  from  London,  ex- 
hausted by  the  kind  hospitalities  of  numerous  friends 
there,  I  dropped  to  sleep,  and  waking  up,  wondered 
whether  I  was  in,  or  had  passed,  Liverpool,  or  was 
shot  on  to  Manchester.  There  was  no  way  of  find- 
ing out  whether  I  had  overslept  or  not.  The  con- 
ductor could  not  be  approached.  There  was  no 
neighbor  in  my  compartment  to  inquire  of.  There 


368  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN 

was  no  one  accessible  to  answer  any  question  respect- 
ing any  place,  or  any  thing.  The  isolation,  or  incar- 
ceration, rather,  was  like  solitary  confinement — at 
least  for  that  part  of  one's  life.  When  the  locomotive 
halted  to  coal  or  water,  I  popped  my  head  out  of  the 
car,  screamed  to  a  neighbor  in  the  car  in  the  rear, 
and  learnt  that  Liverpool  had  not  been  reached,  and 
that  the  rail  I  was  on,  could  not  take  me  to  Manches- 
ter. Think  of  what  profitable  travelling  that  must 
be  for  a  stranger  in  such  solitary  confinement  as  this ! 
But  we  di$  go  fast ! — full  forty  miles  an  hour,  and 
with  ease  and  safety,  too. 

CHRISTMAS  and  NEW  YEAR'S  on  the  rough  winter 
North  Atlantic,  with  furious  gales  of  wind  !  Never 
go  westward  in  winter,  if  you  can  help  it,  for  the 
furies  of  Greenland  will  be  poured  out  upon  you. 
We  have  had  eleven  days  of  continuous  gales,  gain- 
ing, one  day,  only  forty  miles  upon  the  storm ! 


ST.  JOHN'S  (NEWFOUNDLAND),  January  7,  1872. 

The  Algeria  (our  steamer),  a  sturdy,  but  not 
rapid,  Cunarder,  has  put  in  here  for  coal.  Boreas 
and  Yulcan  have  had  a  terrible  tuzzle  for  two  weeks, 
or  more,  on  board  the  steamer,  and  Yulcan,  exhaust- 
ed, knocks  under,  and  makes  for  Newfoundland,  to 
recruit  in  fuel  and  steam. 

One  does  not  feel  exactly  comfortable  in  approach- 
ing a  rock -bound  coast,  in  the  thickest  sort  of  a  fog, 


THINGS  IN  PARIS  AND   LONDON.  3G9 

where  the  entrance  to  the  harbor,  as  that  of  St. 
John's,  is  hardly  wider  than  the  length  of  the  steam- 
er. No  lighthouse  or  beacon  could  be  seen — noth- 
ing, indeed,  save  fog,  fog,  fog ;  but  by  the  help  of 
our  guns,  responded  to  by  guns  at  the  mouth  of  the 
harbor,  we  felt  our  way  safely  in — and  felt  much  bet- 
ter when  we  found  coal  enough  for  us  in  store  from 
the  Nova  Scotia  mines. 

The  Saint,  John,  has  his  name  affixed  to  many 
places  over  the  world,  but  to  none  other,  I  believe, 
in  so  cold  and  inhospitable  a  climate  as  this.  It  is  a 
very  religious  place,  too,  judging  by  the  throngs  go- 
ing to  church,  and  returning  therefrom,  in  the  furi- 
ous snow-storm  to-day.  The  Catholic  Church  here, 
as  I  judge  by  the  numbers  attending,  is,  numerically, 
the  most  powerful.  Immense  crowds,  morning,  noon, 
and  afternoon,  thronged  into  the  capacious  cathedral, 
all  responding  with  feeling  and  fervor  to  the  services 
of  the  priest  of  that  church.  The  most  of  the  great 
crowd  —  nearly  all,  well  dressed  —  must  have  been 
fishermen,  as  were  the  Apostles  of  old,  for  the  odor 
of  fish  rose  above  the  odor  of  incense.  The  seal-oil 
trade  is  great  here,  and  much  of  it  once  went  to  the 
United  States,  where  it  is  now  excluded  by  a  high 
tariff.  The  seals  are  now  hunted  by  steamers,  several 
of  which  are  now  in  the  harbor,  to  start  as  the 
spring  opens,  in  order  to  chase  down  the  seals  on  the 
floating  cakes  of  ice.  Agriculture  amounts  to  but 
little,  very  little,  in  Newfoundland.  The  ocean  is  the 

great  placer  to  be  worked  for  wealth.    A  wild  story  is 
17 


370  A  SEVEN  MONTHS'  RUN. 

now  travelling  here  of  a  Labradorian  mail-carrier, 
who  started  from  St.  John's  this  winter,  in  his  snow- 
shoes,  and  whom  the  wolves  devoured,  on  his  way  to 
the  interior,  leaving  nothing  of  him  and  his  charge 
but  his  gun  and  a  portion  of  the  uneaten  mail,  while 
several  slain  wolves  were  about,  shot  by  the  mail-car- 
rier before  he  was  devoured. 


NEW  YORK,  January  12,  1872. 

Once  more  at  home !  "  Sweet  home ! "  I  feel 
like  re-singing  the  song  of  Catullus,  when  apostro- 
phizing his  Peninsular  home  of  Sirmio. 

[From  Catullus,  Car.  28.] 
O  quid  solutis  est  beatius  curis  ? 
Cum  mens  onus  reponit  ac  peregrine 
Labore  fessi  venimus  larera  ad  nostrum 
Desideratoque  acquiescimus  lecto. 

My  own,  my  chosen  home,  oh,  what  more  blest 
Than  that  sweet  pause  of  troubles  when  the  mind 

Flings  off  its  burden,  and  when,  long  oppressed 
By  cares  abroad  and  foreign  toil,  we  find 

Our  native  home  again,  and  rest  our  head 

Once  more  upon  our  long  lost,  long  wished-for  bed. 


HOME  FROM  A  FOREIGN  SHORE. 

ARRIVAL  OF  HON.  JAMES  BROOKS  IN  THE  ALGERIA.— A  LONG  VOYAGE,  AND  A 
HEARTY    WELCOME  HOME. 

[From  tlie  New  York  World,  January  13,  1872.] 

A  numerous  party  of  the  private  and  professional 
friends  of  the  Hon.  James  Brooks  yesterday  pro- 
ceeded down  the  bay  to  accord  a  welcome  to  that 
gentleman  on  his  arrival  home  after  a  long  and  peril- 
ous journey.  It  having  been  ascertained  that  Mr. 
Brooks  would  arrive  by  the  Cunard  steamer  Algeria, 
the  Henry  Smith,  Captain  Baulsier,  with  the  band 
from  Governor's  Island  on  board,  had  on  the  previ- 
ous day  gone  in  searclTof  this  long  over-due  vessel,  but, 
as  she  failed  to  put  in  an  appearance  before  sun-down, 
it  had  been  arranged  that  the  trip  should  be  repeated 
early  on  the  morrow.  Accordingly,  Colonel  Ingalls 
having  again  placed  the  Henry  Smith  at  the  disposal 
of  the  reception  committee,  the  welcoming  party  left 
Whitehall  yesterday  morning,  at  the  rather  unreason- 
able hour  of  7  o'clock.  The  steamer  was  gaily  deco- 
rated with  flags,  and  on  the  pilot-house  was  displayed 
a  white  banner,  bearing  the  words  :  "  The  friends  of 
the  Hon.  James  Brooks.  Welcome  ! "  The  military 
band  was  again  in  attendance,  and  discoursed  pleasant 
music  on  the  trip  down.  Arriving  at  the  quarantine 
pier  at  about  9  o'clock,  it  was  found  that  a  telegram 


372       HOME  FROM  A  FOREIGN  SHORE. 

had  just  been  received  from  Sandy  Hook,  stating  that 
the  Algeria  had  that  moment  crossed  the  bar.  The 
reception  party,  therefore,  quickly  pinned  on  their 
badges  of  white  silk,  each  of  which  bore  the  word 
"  welcome,"  and  proceeded  slowly  down  the  bay.  On 
reaching  Fort  Tompkius  the  long-expected  steamer 
was  discovered  in  the  distance,  with  her  fore  and 
main  top-mast  housed.  Steam  was  therefore  shut  off, 
and  the  Henry  Smith  lay  to,  only  waiting  to  run 
alongside  the  Algeria  directly  that  vessel  would  be 
abreast  the  fort.  Meanwhile,  the  final  preparations 
for  the  reception  were  completed,  it  being  arranged 
that  ex-Mayor  Gunther  should  make  a.short  welcom- 
ing address,  to  which  Mr.  Brooks  would  necessarily 
reply.  At  about  10  o'clock,  therefore,  the  Henry 
Smithj  with  band  playing  "  Home,  Sweet  Home," 
gave  three  tremendous  shrieks  with  her  whistle,  clip- 
ping, at  the  same  time,  the  flag  at  her  bow  out  of  re- 
spect to  the  English  steamer.  This  was  followed  by 
a  hawser  being  cast  from  the  Algeria  when  the  small- 
er steamer  drew  alongside.  Then  came  the  congratu- 
lations of  Mr.  Brooks's  friends,  who  were,  however, 
unable  to  grasp  him  by  the  hand,  but  contented  them- 
selves with  handkerchief-waving,  cheering,  and  enter- 
tainments of  a  similar  character.  This  welcome  met 
with  a  hearty  response  from  both  the  cabin  and  steer- 
age passengers  on  the  Algeria,  the  latter,  who  seemed 
to  be  pretty  well  worn  out  with  their  long  voyage, 
being  particularly  demonstrative  in  their  joy.  Then, 
as  the  two  steamers  proceeded  alongside  each  other, 
all  manner  of  inquiries  were  exchanged  between  the 
welcomers  and  the  welcomed. 

When  off  quarantine,  the  anchor  was  dropped,  and 
Drs.  Carnochan  and  Mosher  immediately  appeared 


HOME  FROM  A  FOREIGN  SHORE.       373 

in  the  Fletcher  and  commenced  to  pass  the  passengers. 
On  a  second  hawser  being  thrown  to  the  Henry  Smith, 
the  two  vessels  were  drawn  near  each  other,  when 
Mr.  Gavit  sprang  off  the  paddle-box  where  he  had 
been  standing,  cleared  the  bulwarks  of  the  Algeria 
with  a  bound,  and  in  less  than  a  second  had  thrown 
his  arms  around  Mr.  Brooks's  neck  and  was  hugging 
and  kissing  him.  So  suddenly  had  the  attack  been 
made  that  the  recipient  of  this  outburst  of  affection 
had  had  no  time  to  place  himself  in  an  attitude  of  de- 
fence, but  was  compelled  to  receive  and  bear  all  with 
a  smiling  countenance.  As  soon  as  he  could  conveni- 
ently do  so,  Mr.  Brooks  quickly  and  in  a  dignified 
manner  unlocked  himself  from  Mr.  Gavit's  passionate 
embrace,  and  forthwith  saluted  his  son,  who  had  fol- 
lowed closely  on  the  heels  of  the  demonstrative  com- 
mitteeman.  Then  the  other  members  of  the  commit- 
tee poured  over  the  side  of  the  vessel,  and  one  general 
round  of  embracing  and  saluting  went  on  for  some 
minutes.  Miss  Brooks,  who  had  accompanied  her 
father  on  his  grand  tour,  was  also  the  recipient  of 
many  welcomes.  Both  the  voyagers  appeared  in  ex- 
cellent health,  and  seemed  to  have  benefited  by  their 
protracted  journey.  Mr.  Brooks  having  changed  his 
seal-skin  travelling  cap  for  a  more  official-looking  silk 
hat,  was  fully  prepared  for  the  inevitable  address, 
which  was  forthwith  spoken  by  Mr.  -Gunther  on  the 
deck  of  the  Algeria.  After  extending  a  hearty  wel- 
come to  Mr.  Brooks  the  ex-Mayor  proceeded  to  state 
that  he  hailed  him  as  a  representative  man,  and  as 
such  was  always  proud  to  welcome  him.  Many  days 
had  occurred  since  Mr.  Brooks's  departure  for  the  Old 
World,  and  they  were  therefore  doubly  pleased  to 
have  Mr.  Brooks  again  in  their  midst.  In  behalf  of 


HOME  FROM  A  FOREIGN  SHORE. 

the  city,  his  constitutents,  and  the  country  generally, 
he  gave  him  a  hearty  welcome.  Mr.  Brooks  replied 
that  he  felt  extremely  proud  for  the  reception  which 
they  had  accorded  him  ;  in  fact,  it  had  been  quite  an 
ovation,  and  totally  unexpected  by  him.  He  was 
proud  to  be  a  representative  man,  and  would  speedily 
set  about  using  his  utmost  endeavors  to  set  right  any 
principles  that  might  have  suffered  by  his  absence. 
As  his  career  had  been  in  the  past,  so  it  would  be  in 
the  future.  Since  May  last,  when  he  left  this  coun- 
try, he  had  travelled  more  than  thirty  thousand  miles, 
and  felt  very  glad  to  be  again  in  the  midst  of  his 
friends,  and  he  could  assure  them  that  to  him  there 
was  no  place  like  home. 

A  great  waving  of  handkerchiefs  and  much  cheer- 
ing followed  at  the  conclusion  of  these  remarks,  and 
the  band  appropriately  began  to  play  "  Home  Again." 
Mr.  Brooks  was  then  taken  on  board  the  Henry 
Smith,  his  daughter  accompanying  him,  and  immedi- 
ately conducted  to  the  saloon,  where  a  repast  had 
been  prepared.  Miss  Brooks,  being  the  only  lady  on 
board,  retired  to  the  after-cabin,  where  she  passed  the 
time  in  her  brother's  company.  At  the  lunch  the 
customary  toasts  were  given  and  responded  to,  the 
only  noticeable  feature  in  the  proceedings  being  a 
tendency  among  the  guests  to  pledge  Mr.  Brooks's 
health  in  champagne  about  every  thirty  seconds. 
Having  landed  the  young  lady  at  the  Battery,  the 
Henry  Smith  proceeded  to  the  Cunard  Dock  in  Jer- 
sey City,  where  Mr.  Brooks  obtained  his  luggage. 
Four  carriages  were  in  waiting,  and  into  them  the 
private  friends  of  Mr.  Brooks  entered,  the  whole 
party  proceeding  tc  his  residence  in  Fifth  Avenue — 
not  before,  however,  the  old  edit<jr  had  paid  a  visit  to 


HOME  FROM  A  FOREIGN  SHORE.       375 

the  office  of  his  journal  on  Park  Row.  At  the  private 
residence  the  guests  were  received  by  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Brooks,  who,  after  exhibiting  the  various  trophies 
that  the  travellers  had  brought  and  sent  from  abroad, 
conducted  them  to  the  dining-room,  where  an  elegant 
luncheon  was  provided.  After  partaking  of  refresh- 
ment it  suddenly  appeared  to  the  guests  that  the  host 
and  hostess  had  been  sufficiently  worried  for  one  day, 
so,  beating  a  hasty  retreat,  the  whole  party  left  and 
came  down  town. 


THE   END. 


SELECTION  IN  RELATION  TO  SEX. 

BY 

CHAS.  DARWIN,  M.  A.,  F.  E.  S. 

Two  Vols.,  12mo. 


PRICK,     .....    $4.00 


In  these  volumes  Mr.  Darwin  has  brought  forward  all  the  facts  and 
arguments  which  science  has  to  offer  in  favor  of  the  doctrine  that  man 
has  arisen  by  gradual  development  from  the  lowest  point  of  animal  life. 
He  h'ad  originally  intended  this  work  as  a  posthumous  publication,  but 
the  extensive  acceptance  of  the  views  unfolded  in  his  book  on  the  "  Origin 
of  Species  "  induced  him  to  believe  that  the  public  were  ripe  for  the  most 
advanced  deductions  from  his  theory  of  "  Natural  Selection."  Aside  from 
the  logical  purpose  waich  Mr.  Darwin  had  in  view,  his  work  is  an  original 
and  fascinating  contribution  to  the  most  interesting  portion  of  natural 

history.  

From  the  London  Spectator. 

"  For  our  part,  we  find  Dr.  Darwin's  vindication  of  the  origin  of  man  a  far  more 
wonderful  vindication  of  Theism  than  Paley's  'Natural  Theology,'  though  we  do 
not  know,  BO  reticent  is  his  style,  whether  or  not  he  conceives  ft  himself." 
From  the  Citizen  and  Hound  Table. 

"  Even  the  charge  of  atheism,  which  was  so  violently  urged  against  Mr.  Dar- 
win, is  now  rarely  heard,  and  theologians,  whose  orthodoxy  is  unquestioned,  have 
ventured  to  admit  that  it  is  possible  to  believe  both  in  Christianity  and  the  Dar- 
winian theory  at  the  same  time." 

From  the  Charleston  Courier. 

"No  one  can  rise  from  an  ordinarily  attentive  consideration  of  Mr.  Darwin's 
treatise,  without  being  impressed,  not  only  with  the  extent  and  depth  of  the 
knowledge  which  he  has  attained  upon  the  subject  under  treatment,  and  his  long, 
unwearied  labor  in  collecting  facts,  but  also  with  his  possession  of  qualities 
equally  rare— th,e  true  scientific  temper,  the  transparent  candor,  and  the  truth- 
seeking  soberness,  with  which  he  expresses  to  you  hia  conclusions,  and  the  pro- 
cesses oy  which  he  reaches  them. 

"  Whether  you  like  .his  discourse  or  not — though  you  may  refuse  to  acquiesce 
in  his  conclusions— still  you  are  compelled  to  hear  your  witness,  that  this  man 
Sas  not  been  laboring  to  find  facts  to  support  a  preconceived  theory,  but  that  the 
'Jieory  is  the  irrepressible  outgrowth  of  his  accumulated  facts" 
From  the  Evening  Bulletin. 

"  This  theory  is  now  indorsed  by  many  eminent  scientists,  who  at  first  com- 
bated it,  including  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  probably  the  most  learned  of  living  geolo- 
gists?, and  even  by  a  class  of  Christian  divines  like  Dr.  McCosh,  who  think  that 
certain  theories  of  cosmogony,  like  the  nebular  hypothesis  and  tLe  law  of  evolu- 
tion, may  be  accepted  without  doing  violence  to  faith." 

,  by  mail,  to  any  address  in  the  U.  S.,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO,,  Publishers, 


LEATHER-STOCKING  NOVELS. 


"THE  ENDURING  MONUMENTS  OF  FENIMORE  COOPER  ARE  HIS  WORKS.  WHILE 
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HEARTS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  So  TRULY  PATRIOTIC  AND  AMERICAN  THROUGHOUT,  THEY 
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"  Good-bye,  Sweetheart ! "  is  certainly  one  of  the  brightest  and  most 
entertaining  novels  that  has  appeared  for  many  years.  The  heroine  of  the 
story,  Lenore,  is  really  an  original  character,  drawn  only  as  a  woman 
could  draw  her,  who  had  looked  deeply  into  the  mysterious  recesses  of 
the  feminine  heart.  She  ia  a  creation  totally  beyond  the  scope  of  a  man's 
pen,  unless  it  were  the  pen  of  Shakespeare.  Her  beauty,  her  wilfulness, 
her  caprice,  her  love,  and  her  sorrow,  are  depicted  with  marvellous  skill, 
and  invested  with  an  interest  of  which  the  reader  never  becomes  weary. 
Miss  Broughton,  in  this  work,  has  made  an  immense  advance  on  her  other 
stories,  clever  as  those  are.  Her  sketches  of  scenery  and  of  interiors, 
though  brief,  are  eminently  graphic,  and  the  dialogue  is  always  sparkling 
and  witty.  The  incidents,  though  sometimes  startling  and  unexpected, 
are  very  natural,  and  the  characters  and  story,  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end,  strongly  enchain  the  attention  of  the  reader.  The  work  has  been 
warmly  commended  by  the  press  during  its  publication,  as  a  serial,  in 
APPLETONS'  JOURNAL,  and,  in  its  book-form,  bids  fair  to  be  decidedly  THE 
novel  of  the  season. 


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BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOB. 


Sir  HENRY  HOLLAND'S  RECOLLECTIONS. 

RECOLLECTIONS  OF  PAST  LIFE. 

JBy  Sir  HENRY  HOI ,Z AND,  Hart., 

1  vol.,  12mo,  Cloth.   350  pp.   Price,  $2. 

From  the  London  Lancet. 

"  The '  Life  of  Sir  Henry  Holland '  is  one  to  be  recollected,  and  he  has  not  erred 
in  giving  an  outline  of  it  to  the  public.  In  the  very  nature  of  things  it  is  such  a 
life  as  cannot  often  be  repeated.  Even  if  there  were  many  men  in  the  profession 
capable  of  living  to  the  age  of  eighty-four,  and  then  writing  their  life  with  fair 
hope  of  further  travels,  it  Is  not  reasonable  to  expect  that  there  could  ever  be 
more  than  a  very  few  lives  so  full  of  incidents  worthy  of  being  recorded  auto- 
graphically  as  the  marvellous  life  which  we  are  fresh  from  perusing.  The  com- 
bination of  personal  qualities  and  favorable  opportunities  in  Sir  Henry  Holland's 
case  is  as  rare  as  it  is  happy.  But  that  is  one  reason  for  recording  the  history  of 
it.  Sir  Henry's  life  cannot  oe  very  closely  imitated,  but  it  may  be  closely  studied. 
We  have  found  the  study  of  it,  as  recorded  in  the  book  just  published,  one  of  the 
most  delightful  pieces  of  recreation  which  we  have  enjoyed  for  many  days.  .  . 
Among  his  patients  were  pachas,  princes,  and  premiers.  Prince  Albert,  Na- 
poleon ni.,  Talleyrand,  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  Guizot,  Palmella,  Bulow,  and  Drouyn 
de  Lhuys,  Jefferson  Davis,  Lord  Sidmonth,  Lord  Stowell,  Lord  Melbourne,  Lord 
Palmerston,  Lord  Aberdeen,  Lord  Lansdowne,  Lord  Lyiidliurst,  to  say  nothing 
of  men  of  other  note,  were  among  his  patients." 

From  the  London  Spectator. 

"  We  constantly  find  ourselves  recalling  the  Poet  Laureate's  modernized 
Ulysses,  the  great  wanderer,  insatiate  of  new  experiences,  as  we  read  the  story 
of  the  octogenarian  traveller  and  his  many  friends  in  many  lands  : 

'  I  am  become  a  name ; 
For  always  roaming  with  a  hungry  heart, 
Much  have  I  seen  and  known.    Cities  of  men 
And  manners,  climates,  councils,  governments, 
Myself  not  least  and  honored  of  them  all.' 

You  see  in  this  book  all  this  and  more  than  this— knowledge  of  the  world,  and 
insatiable  thirst  for  more  knowledge  of  it,  great  clearness  of  aim  and  exact  ap- 
preciation of  the  mind's  own  wants,  precise  knowledge  of  the  self-sacrifices  need- 
ed to  gratify  those  wants  and  a  readiness  for  those  sacrifices,  a  distinct  adoption 
of  an  economy  of  life,  and  steady  adherence  to  it  from  beginning  to  end— all  of 
them  characteristics  which  are  but  rare  in  this  somewhat  confused  and  hand-to- 
mouth  world,  and  which  certainly  when  combined  make  a  unique  study  of  char- 
acter, however  indirectly  it  may  be  presented  to  us  and  however  little  attention 
may  be  drawn  to  the  interior  of  the  picture." 

From  the  New  York  Times.          ' 

"His  memory  was— is,  we  may  say,  for  he  is  still  alive  and  in  possession  of 
all  his  faculties — stored  with  recollections  of  the  most  eminent  men  and  women 
of  this  century.  He  has  known  the  intimate  friends  of  Dr.  Johnson.  He  travelled 
in  Albania  when  All  Pacha  ruled,  and  has  since  then  explored  almost  every  part 
of  the  world,  except  the  far  East.  He  has  made  eight  visits  to  this  country,  and 
at  the  age  of  eighty-two  (in  1869)  he  was  here  again — the  guest  of  Mr.  Evarts,  and, 
while  in  this  city,  of  Mr.  Thurlow  Weed.  Since  then  he  has  made  a  voyage  to 
Jamaica  and  the  West  India  Islands,  and  a  second  visit  to  Iceland.  He  was  a 
friend  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Lockhart.  Dugald  Stewart,  Mme.  de  StaSl,  Byron, 
Moore,  Campbell,  Rogers,  Urabhe,  Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  Talleyrand,  Sydney 
Smith,  Macaulay,  Hallam,  Mackintosh,  Malthus,  Erskine.  Humboldt,  Schlegel, 
Canova,  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  Joanna  Baillie,  Lord  and  Lady  Holland,  and  many 
other  distinguished  persons  whose  names  would  occupy  a  column.  In  this  coun- 
try he  has  known,  among  other  celebrated  men,  Edward  Everett,  Daniel  Webster, 
Henry  Clay,  Abraham  Lincoln,  Seward.  etc.  He  was  born  the  same  year  in  which 
the  United  States  Constitution  was  ratified.  A  life  extending  over  such  a  period, 
and  passed  in  the  most  active  .manner,  in  the  midst  of  the  best  society  which  the 
world  has  to  offer,  must  necessarily  be  full  of  singular  interest;  and  Sir  Henry 
Holland  has  fortunately  not  waited  until  his  memory  lost  its  freshness  before 
recalling  some  of  the  incidents  in  it." 


682 


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